iiDRHSSHS  In  THR  UNITHD  STATES 


M.  RENH  VlViANI 


AM) 


ARSHAL  JOFFRE 


2^. 


♦s;- 


ADDRESSES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
BY 

M.  RENE  VIVIANI 

AND 
MARSHAL  JOFFRE 

FRENCH  MISSION  TO  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

APRIL-MAY 
MCMXVII 


*'V 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/addressesinuniteOOvivi 


"**._ 


M.    RENE    VIVIANI    AND    MARSHAL    JOFFRE 
FRENCH    MISSION    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES 


ADDRESSES  IN  THE  UNEEED  STATES, 
L^^  BY 

M.  RENE  VIVIANI 

FORMHR  PRHMIIiR,  v/cE   PRESIDENT 

OF  THE  COUNCIL  OF  MINISTERS, 

MINISTER  OF  JUSTICE 

AND 

MARSHAL  JOFFRE 

FRENCH    MISSION   TO  THE 
UNITED   STATES 

APRIL-MAY,    MCMXVII 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 
1917 


^A 


^ 


*>^^ 


Copyright,  1917,  hy 

DOUBLEDAY,  PaGE  &  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of 

translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian 


NOTE 

THE    PROCEEDS    FROM    THE    SALE   OF 
THIS   BOOK 
WILL   BE   DEVOTED  TO  HELPING 
THE   ORPHAN    CHILDREN   OF    FRANCE 
THROUGH  THE  DIFFERENT  ASSO- 
CIATIONS ORGANIZED  FOR 
THAT  PURPOSE 


•fv 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

WITH  the  exception  of  two  or  three 
speeches  of  which  no  stenographic  rec- 
ord remains,  the  following  pages  con- 
tain all  the  public  addresses  made  by  M.  Viviani 
and  Marshal  Joffre  during  their  stay  in  the  Uni- 
ted States.  They  were  in  every  case  improvised; 
for  the  ceaseless  stress  of  hurried  work  imposed 
upon  the  Mission  by  the  brevity  of  its  stay  in  this 
Country  and  its  innumerable  duties  allowed  neither 
preparation  nor  revision,  nor  even  careful  transla- 
tion. They  are  consequently  but  an  imperfect 
memorial  of  historic  utterances.  In  justice  to 
one  of  the  greatest  living  masters  of  speech,  it 
is  right  to  warn  the  reader  that,  in  many  places, 
even  the  French  text  of  M.  Viviani's  addresses  is 
uncertain.  Had  he  been  able  to  revise  it,  even 
hurriedly,  this  translation  would  have  been  more 
faithful  at  any  rate  to  the  letter  of  his  words. 
But  such  as  it  is,  it  constitutes  perhaps  in  its  very 
imperfections  a  more  characteristic  testimony  of 
the  war  conditions  of  haste  and  spontaneousness 
under  which  these  speeches  were  delivered. 

vii 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

For  this  translation  1  alone  am  responsible; 
no  one  could  more  keenly  realize  nor  regret  its 
inevitable  short-comings.  But  like  the  speeches 
themselves,  it  had  to  be  improvised  among  a 
thousand  other  urgent  duties;  no  leisurely  revision 
was  possible;  and  my  sudden  departure- has  pre- 
vented my  even  reading  the  proof-sheets  with  care. 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  all  the  disadvantages 
under  which  this  booklet  is  produced,  1  trust  it 
will  meet  with  the  favour  of  a  public  which,  in  all 
circumstances,  has  shown  us  understanding,  sym- 
pathy and  all  indulgence.  There  are  inevitable 
repetitions,  though,  thanks  to  M.  Viviani's  mar- 
velous gift  for  renewing  the  expression  of  identical 
themes,  these  are  fewer  than  might  be  expected. 
On  second  thoughts  I  have  suppressed  none;  what 
the  speeches  may  lose  in  aesthetic  value,  they  re- 
tain in  historic  and  local  interest.  It  appeared  to 
me  that  each  city  would  desire  to  keep  a  record  of 
the  words  pronounced  within  its  precincts,  and 
that  I  was  not  justified  in  suppressing  any. 

And  thus,  such  as  it  is,  this  booklet  gives  a  not 
unfaithful  image  of  one  aspect  of  a  great  event. 
The  burning  words  so  eloquently  spoken  with 
impassioned  gesture  and  all  the  moving  inflec- 
tions of  a  thrilling  voice  stand  here  cold  and  mo- 
tionless, stripped  of  the  glow  and  glory  of  quick 
life.  But  their  force,  their  sincerity,  their  mes- 
sage remain.  They  remind  us  with  a  noble  sim- 
plicity that  the  whole  world  is  at  the  parting  of 

viii 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

the  ways;  they  are  informed  by  the  mysterious 
presence  of  a  great  destiny.  For  in  all  history 
no  date  is  more  charged  with  fate  than  that  on 
which  the  United  States  entered  into  this  war. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  evolution  of  the  planet, 
the  life  of  one  whole  hemisphere  is  about  to  mingle 
with  the  life  of  the  old  world,  which,  till  now,  had 
almost  a  monopoly  of  history. 

The  consequences  of  this  irruption  of  new  forces 
into  the  immemorial  traditions,  the  thousand- 
year  old  struggles  of  our  confused  and  distracted 
Europe,  are  incalculable.  It  is  not  only  that  new 
energies,  political,  social  and  military,  are  being 
thrown  into  the  vast  conflict  for  the  liberation  of 
man;  new  rhythms  are  being  introduced  into  the 
whole  life  of  the  older  races:  and  in  the  world 
which  shall  arise  with  the  dawn  of  peace,  the  part 
that  America  will  play  none  can  foresee. 

But  the  spirit  in  which  America  enters  upon 
this  conflict,  the  aims  that  France  and  all  free  men 
are  now  seeking  to  realize  are  defined  here  in 
words  not  unworthy  of  meditation  and  record. 

Emile  Hovelaque. 


IX 


•Hw 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Prefatory  Note  by  Mr.  Emile  IIovelaque      vii 

ADDRESSES  BY  M.  \'1\'IANI 

I     Statement  of  M.  Viviani  to  the 

Representatives   of   the    Press         3 

II     At  Mount  \'ernon,  Sunday,  April 

29th 7 

III  Before  the  United  States  Senate, 

Tuesday,  May  1st 10 

IV  Before  the  House  of  Representa- 

tives, Thursday,  May  3rd   ...        14 

V     At  the  Chicago  Club,  Fridav,  May 

4th '     .      .        18 

VI     At  the  Congress  Hotel,  Chicago, 

Friday,  May  4th 21 

VII     At  the  Auditorium.  Chicago,  Fri- 
day, May  4th 23 

\'in     At    the    University    of    Chicago, 

Saturday,  May  5th 36 

IX     At    the    Chicago    Stock     Yards, 

Saturday,  May  5th     ...      .       44 

xi 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

X     In    Kansas    City,    Mo.,    Sunday, 

May  6th 47 

XI     In  St.  Louis  Mo.,  Sunday,  May  6th       52 

XII  At  the  Missouri  Athletic  Club, 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  Monday,  May 
7th 57 

XIII  At   Springfield,    Illinois.       De- 

livered   before   the    Legisla- 
ture, Monday,  May  7th     .      .       69 

XIV  At   Indianapolis,    Indiana,  Tues- 

day, May  8th    74 

XV     At  Columbus,  Ohio,  Tuesday,  May 

8th 77 

XVI  At  Independence  Hall,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa.,  Wednesday,  May 
9th 80 

XVII     At  the  Philadelphia  Luncheon, 

Wednesday,   May  9th      ...       83 

XVIII     At  the  City   Hall,   New   York, 

Wednesday,  May  9th       ...      90 

XIX  At  the  Merchants'  Association 
Luncheon,  New  York  City, 
Thursday,  May  loth    ....       98 

XX  At  THE  Lawyers' Luncheon,  Bilt- 
MORE  Hotel,  New  York,  Friday, 
May  nth 107 

XXI     At  the   Waldorf-Astoria,  New 

York,   Friday,  May   iith     .      .      118 

xii 


CONTFNTS 

PAGE 


XXII     At  the   Boston   Public  Library, 

Sunday,   May   13th      .      .      .      .      131 

ADDRESSES   BY   MARSHAL  JOFFRE 

XX HI     Statement  for  the   Press,  April 

29th 143 

XXIV     Remarks  at  Mount  Vernon,  April 

29th 147 

XXV     Speech  at  St.   Louis,   Mo.,   May 

6th  148 

XXVI     Speech   at    Boston,    Mass.,    May 

i2th 149 


xui 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 

M.  ViviANi  AND  Marshal  Joffre    .     .     .   Title 

M.  ViVIANI 3 

Marshal  Joffre i45 


XV 


ADDRESSES 

BY 

M.  RENE  VIVIANI 


M.    RENE    VIVIANI 


I 


STATEMENT  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

TO  THE  REPRESENTATIVES  OF 

THE  PRESS 

1  PROMISED  to  receive  you  after  having  re- 
served, as  elementary  courtesy  required,  my 
first  communication  solely  for  the  President. 
I  have  just  had  the  honour,  which  I  shared  with  the 
other  members  of  the  mission,  of  being  received  by 
him.  I  am  indeed  happy  to  have  been  chosen  to 
present  the  greetings  of  the  French  Republic  to 
the  illustrious  man  whose  name  is  in  every  French 
mouth  to-day,  whose  incomparable  message  is  at 
this  very  hour  being  read  and  commented  upon 
in  all  our  schools  as  the  most  perfect  charter  of 
human  rights  and  which  so  fully  expresses  the 
virtues  of  your  race — long-suflFering  patience  before 
appealing  to  force;  and  force  to  avenge  that  long- 
suffering  patience  when  there  can  be  no  other 
means. 

Since  you  are  here  to  listen  to  me  I  ask  you  to 
repeat  a  thousand  fold  the  expression  of  our  deep 
gratitude  for  the  enthusiastic  reception  the  Ameri- 

3 


STATEMENT  BY   M.  VIVIANI 

can  people  has  granted  us  in  Washington.  It  is 
not  to  us,  but  to  our  beloved  and  heroic  France 
that  that  reception  was  accorded.  We  were  proud 
to  be  her  children  in  those  unforgettable  moments 
when  we  read  in  the  radiance  of  the  faces  we  saw 
the  noble  sincerity  of  your  hearts.  And  I  desire 
to  thank  also  the  Press  of  the  United  States  repre- 
sented by  you.  I  fully  realize  the  ardent  and 
disinterested  help  you  have  given  by  your  tireless 
propaganda  in  the  cause  of  Right:  I  know  your  ac- 
tion has  been  incalculable.  Gentlemen,  1  thank 
you. 

We  have  come  to  this  land  to  salute  the  Ameri- 
can people  and  its  government,  to  call  to  fresh 
vigour  our  ancient  friendship,  sweet  and  comforting 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  our  lives,  and  which  these 
tragic  hours  have  raised  to  all  the  ardour  of 
brotherly  love — a  brotherly  love  which  in  these 
last  years  of  suffering  has  multiplied  its  most 
touching  expressions.  To  us  you  have  given  help, 
not  only  materially,  but  by  every  act  of  kindness 
and  good  will:  yet  more;  for  us  your  children  have 
shed  their  blood,  and  the  names  of  your  sacred  dead 
are  inscribed  forever  in  our  hearts.  And  it  was  with 
a  full  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  what  you  did 
that  you  acted.  Your  inexhaustible  generosity  was 
not  the  charity  of  the  fortunate  to  the  distressed: 
it  was  an  affirmation  of  your  conscience,  a  rea- 
soned approval  of  your  judgment.  Your  fellow- 
countrymen  knew  that  under  the  savage  assault 

4 


STATEMENT  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

of  a  nation  of  prey  which  has  made  of  war,  to 
quote  a  famous  saying,  its  national  industry,  we 
were  upholding  with  our  incomparable  allies, 
faithful  and  valiant  to  the  death,  with  all  those 
sons  of  indomitable  England,  who,  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  us  on  the  firing-line,  are  struggling 
for  the  violated  rights  of  man,  for  that  democratic 
spirit  which  the  forces  of  autocracy  were  attempt- 
ing to  crush  throughout  the  world.  We  are  ready 
to  carry  that  struggle  on  to  the  end. 

And  now,  as  President  Wilson  has  said,  the 
Republic  of  the  United  States  rises  in  its  strength 
as  a  champion  of  Right,  and  rallies  to  the  side  of 
France  and  her  Allies.  Only  our  descendants, 
when  time  has  removed  them  sufficiently  far  from 
present  events,  will  be  able  to  measure  the  full 
significance,  the  grandeur  of  an  historic  act  which 
has  sent  a  thrill  through  the  whole  world.  From 
to-day  on  all  the  forces  of  Freedom  are  let  loose. 
And  not  only  victory,  of  which  we  were  already 
assured,  is  certain ;  the  true  meaning  of  that  victory 
is  made  manifest ;  it  cannot  be  merely  a  fortunate 
military  conclusion  to  this  struggle;  it  will  be  the 
victory  of  Morality  and  Right,  and  will  for  ever 
secure  the  existence  of  a  world  in  which  all  our 
children  shall  draw  free  breath  in  full  peace  and 
in  the  undisturbed  pursuit  of  their  labours. 

To  accomplish  this  great  work,  which  shall  be 
carried  to  completion,  we  are  about  to  exchange 
views  with   the  men   in  your  Government  best 

5 


STATEMENT  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

qualified  to  help.  The  cooperation  of  the  Repub- 
lic of  the  United  States  in  this  world  conflict  is 
now  assured.  We  work  together  as  freemen  who 
are  resolved  to  save  the  ideals  of  mankind. 


I 

AT  MOUNT  VERNON 
sunday,  april  29th 

Gentlemen: 

WE  could  not  remain  any  longer  in  Wash- 
ington without  accomplishing  this  pious 
pilgrimage.  In  this  spot  lies  all  that 
is  mortal  of  a  great  hero.  Close  by  this  spot  stands 
the  modest  abode  where  Washington  rested  after 
the  tremendous  labour  of  achieving  the  emancipa- 
tion of  a  nation.  In  this  spot  meet  the  admir- 
ation of  the  whole  world  and  the  veneration  of  the 
American  people.  In  this  spot  rise  before  us  the 
glorious  memories  left  by  the  soldiers  of  France 
led  by  Rochambeau  and  Lafayette;  a  descendant 
of  the  latter,  my  friend  M.  de  Chambrun,  ac- 
companies us.  And  I  esteem  it  a  supreme  honour 
as  well  as  a  satisfaction  for  my  conscience  to  be 
entitled  to  render  this  homage  to  our  ancestors 
in  the  presence  of  my  colleague  and  friend,  Mr. 
Balfour,  who  so  nobly  represents  his  great  nation. 
By  thus  coming  to  lay  here  the  respectful  tribute 
of  every  English  mind,  he  shows,  in  this  historic 
moment  of  communion  which  France  has  willed. 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

what  nations  that  live  for  liberty  can  do.  When 
we  contemplate  in  the  distant  past  the  luminous 
presence  of  Washington,  in  nearer  times  the  ma- 
jestic figure  of  Abraham  Lincoln ;  when  we  respect- 
fully salute  President  Wilson,  the  worthy  heir  of 
these  great  memories,  we  at  one  glance  measure 
the  vast  career  of  the  American  people.  It  is  be- 
cause the  American  people  proclaimed  and  won 
for  the  nation  the  right  to  govern  itself,  it  is  be- 
cause it  proclaimed  and  won  the  equality  of  all 
men,  that  the  free  American  people  at  the  hour 
marked  by  fate  has  been  enabled  with  command- 
ing force  to  carry  its  action  beyond  the  seas;  it  is 
because  it  was  resolved  to  extend  its  action  still 
further  that  Congress  was  enabled  to  obtain  within 
the  space  of  a  few  days  the  vote  of  conscription 
and  to  proclaim  in  the  full  splendour  of  civil  peace 
the  necessity  for  a  National  Army,  In  the  name 
of  France  I  salute  the  young  army  which  will  share 
in  our  common  glory. 

While  paying  this  supreme  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  Washington,  I  do  not  diminish  the 
effect  of  my  words  when  I  turn  my  thoughts  to 
the  memory  of  so  many  unnamed  heroes.  I  ask 
you  by  this  tomb  to  bow  in  earnest  meditation 
and  all  the  fervour  of  piety  before  all  the  soldiers 
of  the  allied  nations  who  for  nearly  three  years 
have  been  fighting  under  different  flags  for  the 
same  ideal.  I  beg  you  to  address  the  homage  of 
your  hearts  and  souls  to  all  the  heroes,  born  to 

8 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

live  in  happiness,  in  the  tranquil  pursuit  of  their 
labours,  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  human  affections, 
who  went  into  battle  with  virile  cheerfulness  and 
gave  themselves  up,  not  to  death  alone,  but  to 
the  eternal  silence  that  closes  over  those  whose 
sacrifice  remains  nameless,  in  the  full  knowledge 
that,  save  for  those  who  loved  them,  their  very 
names  would  disappear  with  their  bodies.  Their 
monument  is  in  our  hearts.  Not  the  living  alone 
greet  us  here;  the  ranks  of  the  dead  themselves 
rise  to  surround  the  soldiers  of  liberty. 

At  this  solemn  hour  in  the  history  of  our  world, 
while  heralding  from  this  sacred  mound  the  final 
victory  of  justice,  I  extend  to  the  Republic  of  the 
United  States  the  greetings  of  the  French  Re- 
public. 


Ill 

BEFORE  THE  UNITED  STATES  SENATE 
Tuesday,  May  ist 

SINCE  I  have  been  granted  the  supreme 
honour  of  speaking  before  the  representa- 
tives of  the  American  people,  may  I  ask 
them  first  to  allow  me  to  thank  this  magnificent 
capital  for  the  welcome  it  has  accorded  us.  Ac- 
customed as  we  are  in  our  own  free  land  to  popular 
manifestations,  and  though  we  had  been  warned  by 
your  fellow  countrymen  who  live  in  Paris  of  the 
enthusiasm  burning  in  your  hearts,  we  are  still 
full  of  the  emotions  raised  by  the  sights  that 
awaited  us.  1  shall  never  cease  to  see  the  proud 
and  stalwart  men  who  saluted  our  passage;  your 
women,  whose  grace  adds  fresh  beauty  to  your 
city,  their  arms  outstretched  full  of  flowers,  and 
your  children,  hurrying  to  meet  us  at  the  call  of 
their  masters  as  if  our  coming  were  looked  upon  as 
a  lesson  for  them,  all  with  one  accord  acclaiming 
in  our  perishable  persons  immortal  France.  And 
yet  I  predict  there  will  be  a  yet  grander  mani- 
festation on  the  day  when  your  illustrious  Presi- 

lO 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

dent,  relieved  from  the  burden  of  power,  shall 
come  among  us,  bearing  the  salute  of  the  Re- 
public of  the  United  States  to  a  free  Europe, 
whose  foundations  from  end  to  end  shall  be  based 
on  Right.  It  is  with  unspeakable  emotion  that 
we  crossed  the  threshold  of  this  legislative  palace, 
where  prudence  and  boldness  meet,  and  that  I  for 
the  first  time  in  the  annals  of  America,  though  a 
foreigner,  speak  in  this  hall  which  only  a  few  days 
since  resounded  with  words  of  virile  force.  You 
have  set  all  the  democracies  of  the  world  the  most 
magnificent  of  examples.  So  soon  as  the  common 
peril  was  made  manifest  to  you,  with  simplicity  and 
within  a  few  short  days,  you  voted  a  formidable 
war  credit  and  proclaimed  that  a  formidable  army 
was  to  be  raised.  The  commentary  on  his  acts 
which  President  Wilson  gave  before  acting,  and 
which  you  made  yours,  remains  in  the  history  of  free 
peoples  the  weightiest  of  lessons.  Doubtless  you 
were  resolved  to  avenge  the  insults  offered  your 
flag,  which  the  whole  world  respected:  doubtless 
through  the  thickness  of  these  massive  walls  the 
mournful  cry  of  all  the  victims  whom  criminal 
hands  hurled  into  the  depths  of  the  sea,  has 
reached  and  stirred  your  souls:  but  it  will  be  your 
honour  in  history  that  you  also  heard  the  cry  of 
humanity,  and  invoked  against  autocracy  the 
rights  of  democracies.  And  I  can  only  wonder 
as  I  speak,  what,  if  they  still  have  any  power  to 
think,   are  the  thoughts  oi  the   autocrats  who, 

II 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

three  years  ago  against  us,  three  months  ago 
against  you,  unchained  this  conflict.  Ah!  doubt- 
less they  said  among  themselves  that  a  democracy 
is  merely  an  ideal  government  that  showers  re- 
forms on  mankind,  that  can  in  the  domain  of  labour 
quicken  all  economic  activities  but  that  from  a 
military  point  of  view  is  impotent.  And  yet  now 
we  see  the  French  Republic  fighting  efficiently  in 
defence  of  its  territory  and  the  liberty  of  nations 
and  opposing  to  the  avalanche  let  loose  by  Prussian 
militarism,  the  union  of  all  its  children,  who  are 
still  capable  of  striking  many  a  weighty  blow. 
And  now  we  see  England,  far  removed  like  you 
from  conscription,  who  has  also,  by  virtue  of  a 
discipline  all  accept,  raised  from  her  soil  millions 
of  fighting  men.  And  we  see  other  nations  ac- 
complishing the  same  act;  and  that  liberty  can  not 
only  enflame  all  hearts,  but  can  coordinate  and  bring 
into  being  all  needed  efforts.  And  now  we  see  all 
America  rise  and  sharpen  her  weapons  in  the  midst 
of  peace  for  the  common  struggle.  Together  we 
will  carry  on  that  struggle.  And  when  by  force  we 
have  at  last  imposed  military  victory,  our  labours 
will  not  be  concluded.  Our  task  will  be,  1  quote 
the  noble  words  of  President  Wilson,  to  organize 
the  Society  of  Nations.  I  well  know  that  the  gibes 
of  our  enemies,  who  have  never  seen  before  them 
anything  but  horizons  of  carnage,  will  never  cease 
to  jeer  at  so  noble  a  dream.  Such  has  always  been 
the  fate  of  ideas  at  their  birth;  and  if  thinkers  and 

12 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

men  of  action  had  allowed  themselves  to  be  dis- 
couraged by  sceptics,  mankind  would  still  be  in  its 
infancy,  and  we  should  still  be  slaves.  After 
material  victory  we  will  win  this  moral  victory. 
We  will  shatter  the  ponderous  sword  of  militarism : 
we  will  establish  guarantees  for  peace;  and  then 
we  can  disappear  from  the  world's  stage  since  we 
shall  leave  at  the  cost  of  our  common  immolation 
the  noblest  heritage  future  generations  can  possess. 


13 


IV 

BEFORE  THE  HOUSE  OF 

REPRESENTATIVES 

thursday,  may  3rd 

Gentlemen: 

ONCE  more,  my  fellow  countrymen  and  1 
are  admitted  to  the  honour  of  being  pre- 
sent at  a  sitting  in  a  legislative  Chamber. 
May  I  be  permitted  to  express  our  emotion  at  this 
solemn  derogation  against  rules  more  than  a  cen- 
tury old,  and,  so  far  as  my  own  person  is  con- 
cerned, may  I  say  that,  as  a  member  of  parliament 
accustomed  for  twenty  years  to  the  passions  and 
storms  which  sweep  through  political  assemblies, 
1  appreciate  more  than  any  one  at  this  moment 
the  supreme  joy  of  being  near  this  chair,  which  is 
in  such  a  commanding  position  that  however 
feeble  may  be  the  voice  that  speaks  thence,  it 
is  heard  over  the  whole  world. 

Gentlemen,  I  will  not  thank  you;  not  because 
our  gratitude  fails,  but  because  new  words  to 
express  it  fail.  No,  I  do  not  thank  you  for  your 
welcome.  We  all  felt,  my  companions  and  my- 
self, that  the  manifestations  which  rose  toward 

14 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

our  persons  came  not  only  from  your  lips.  We 
felt  that  you  were  not  merely  fulfilling  the  obli- 
gations of  international  courtesy.  Suddenly,  in 
all  its  charming  intimacy,  the  complexity  of  the 
American  soul  was  revealed  to  us. 

When  one  meets  an  American,  one  is  supposed 
to  meet  a  practical  man,  merely  a  practical  man, 
caring  only  for  business,  only  interested  in  busi- 
ness. But  when  at  certain  hours  in  private  life 
one  studies  the  American  soul,  one  discovers  at 
the  same  time  how  fresh  and  delicate  it  is;  and 
when  at  certain  moments  of  public  life  one  con- 
siders the  soul  of  the  Nation,  then  one  sees  all  the 
force  of  the  ideals  that  rise  from  it:  so  that  this 
American  people,  in  its  perfect  balance,  is  at  once 
practical  and  sentimental,  a  realizer  and  a  dreamer, 
and  is  always  ready  to  place  its  practical  qualities 
at  the  disposal  of  its  puissant  thoughts. 

And  see.  Gentlemen,  what  a  glorious  compari- 
son, to  our  profit,  to  yours  also,  we  can  establish 
between  our  enemies  and  us.  Entrusted  with  a 
mandate  from  a  free  people  we  come  among  free 
men  to  compare  our  ideas,  to  exchange  our  views, 
to  measure  the  whole  extent  of  the  problems 
raised  by  this  war.  And  all  the  allied  nations, 
simply  because  they  repose  on  democratic  insti- 
tutions, through  their  governments  meet  in  the 
same  lofty  region,  on  equal  terms,  in  full  liberty. 

I  well  know  that  at  this  very  hour,  in  the  Central 
Empire,  there  is  an  absolute  monarch  who  binds 

•5 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

to  his  will  by  vassal  links  of  steel  other  peoples. 
It  has  been  said  this  was  a  sign  of  strength:  it  is 
only  a  derisive  appearance  of  strength.  And  in 
truth,  only  a  few  weeks  ago,  on  the  eve  of  the  day 
when  outraged  America  was  about  to  rise  in  its 
force,  on  the  morrow  of  the  day  when  the  Russian 
revolution,  faithful  to  its  alliance,  called  at  once 
its  soldiers  to  arms  and  its  people  to  independence, 
this  absolute  monarch  was  seen  to  totter  on  the 
steps  of  his  throne,  as  he  felt  the  first  breath  of  the 
tempest  pass  over  his  crown.  And  he  bent  toward 
his  people  in  humiliation,  and  in  order  to  win  its 
sympathy  borrowed  from  free  peoples  their  highest 
institutions  and  promised  his  subjects  universal 
suffrage. 

Here,  as  in  the  crucial  hours  of  our  history,  as  in 
these  of  yours,  it  is  liberty  which  clears  the  way 
for  our  soldiers.  We  are  all  now  united  in  our 
common  effort  for  civilization,  for  right. 

The  day  before  yesterday,  in  a  public  meeting 
at  which  1  was  present,  I  heard  one  of  your  greatest 
orators  say  with  deep  emotion:  "It  has  been 
sworn  on  the  tomb  of  Washington."  And  I 
understood  the  full  emotion  and  import  of  those 
words.  If  Washington  could  rise  from  his  tomb, 
if  from  his  sacred  mound  he  could  view  the  world 
as  it  now  is,  shrunk  to  smaller  proportions  by  the 
lessening  of  material  and  moral  distances,  and  the 
increase  of  every  kind  of  communication  between 
men,  he  would  feel  his  labours  are  not  yet  concluded; 

i6 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

and  that,  just  as  a  man  of  superior  and  powerful 
mind  has  a  debt  to  all  other  men,  so  a  superior  and 
powerful  nation  owes  a  debt  to  other  nations; 
after  establishing  its  own  independence  it  must  aid 
others  tomaintain  their  independence  or  to  conquer 
it.  This  is  the  mysterious  logic  of  history  which 
President  Wilson  so  marvellously  understood, 
thanks  to  a  mind  as  vigorous  as  it  is  subtle,  as 
capable  of  analysis  as  it  is  of  synthesis,  of  minute 
observation  followed  by  swift  action.  It  has  been 
sworn  on  the  tomb  of  Washington.  It  has  been 
sworn  on  the  tomb  of  our  allied  soldiers,  fallen 
in  a  sacred  cause!  It  has  been  sworn  by  the  bed- 
side of  our  wounded  men!  It  has  been  sworn  on 
the  heads  of  our  orphan  children!  It  has  been 
sworn  on  cradles  and  on  tombs!  It  has  been 
sworn ! 


17 


AT  THE  CHICAGO  CLUB 
friday,  may  4th 

Gentlemen: 

IN  SPITE  of  what  you  may  think,  if  1  perfectly 
understood  the  last  speech — -that  of  Mr. 
Green,  because  it  was  in  French,  I  also  under- 
stood the  general  drift  of  the  speech  delivered  by 
the  Lieutenant  Governor.  I  understood  them  both 
because  it  is  impossible  for  a  Frenchman,  after 
the  hearty  welcome  extended  to  us  and  for  which 
1  especially  thank  your  Mayor,  Mr.  Thompson, 
not  to  understand  also  that  all  the  words  pro- 
nounced came  from  the  heart:  and  between  hearts 
there  is  a  mysterious  language  which  is  more  elo- 
quent than  words. 

You  said  a  moment  ago  that  this  was  not  the 
first  occasion  on  which  Frenchmen  had  come  to 
American  soil.  The  first  orator  who  spoke,  Mr. 
Payne,  recalled  the  fact  that  General  Lafayette, 
one  of  whose  descendants,  the  Marquis  de  Cham- 
brun,  accompanies  us,  had  come  in  arms  to  help 
your  great  Washington.  He  might  have  added 
that   the   profit   was    mutual   since    Washington 

i8 


ADDRESS   BY  M.   VIVIANI 

taught  him  more  than  one  lesson.  And  on  the  day 
they  met  was  born  the  brotherly  friendship  which, 
throughout  the  long  years  of  the  last  century,  yet 
more  in  this  century,  has  united  France  and  the 
United  States. 

I  also  thank  Mr.  Payne  for  having  so  clearly 
marked  the  attitude  of  invaded  France,  subjected 
to  an  aggression  against  which  it  was  forced  to  rise, 
an  aggression  which  you  have  rightly  said  was 
silently  prepared  for  the  last  forty-five  years. 
And  1  also  thank  Mr.  Green  who,  because  he 
long  lived  in  France,  never  lost  faith  in  her.  If  he 
has  shed  tears  over  her,  as  he  said  he  did  in  his 
speech,  he  was  right  in  say4ng  they  were  not  tears 
of  despair. 

For  France  is  not  a  weak  and  oppressed  nation, 
and,  though  for  three  years  she  has  borne  the  brunt 
of  the  most  terrific  onslaught  in  all  history,  she  is 
still  strong,  she  is  still  valiant,  she  is  still  fighting: 
she  is  still  ready  with  her  allies  to  meet  any  destiny 
in  store  for  her. 

I  thank  you  for  receiving  us  here  so  simply  in 
this  banquet  where  the  American  Flag  greets  us, 
and  where  by  a  delicate  attention,  we  are  placed, 
Marshal  Joffre  and  myself,  under  the  folds  of  the 
French  Flag.  Look  well  at  it:  here  it  hangs 
motionless  and  still.  It  is  otherwise  on  our  fight- 
ing line,  where  it  is  shaken  and  torn  by  shot  and 
shell.  Yet  it  remains  in  the  brave  hands  of  those 
who  bear  it  not  only  a  symbol  of  French  courage, 

19 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

but  that  of  free  democracy  and  of  civilization. 
Under  it  our  admirable  army,  led  by  the  glorious 
chiefs  whom  the  illustrious  warrior  seated  beside 
me  directed,  stayed  the  avalanche  which  threatened 
not  only  France,  but  all  the  democratic  insti- 
tutions of  every  land.  And  1  am  happy  to  say, 
without  excess  of  pride,  that,  faithful  to  its  mission, 
France  in  those  heroic  days  of  which  the  memory 
cannot  die,  fulfilled  its  duty,  the  duty  conferred 
on  it  by  humanity,  which  has  been  nobly  to  fight 
for  weaker  nations  and  to  defend  the  dignity  of 
man. 


20 


VI 
AT  THE  CONGRESS  HOTEL.  CHICAGO 

FRIDAY,    MAY    4TH 

MR.  McCORMICK  has  just  recalled  in 
the  most  flattering  words,  words  which 
have  gone  straight  to  our  hearts,  the 
glorious  memories  of  our  common  history.  He 
has  reminded  us  that  one  hundred  and  forty  years 
ago  Lafayette  first  set  his  foot  upon  American  soil 
accompanied  by  only  eleven  officers.  And  I 
wonder,  as  I  speak,  what  Lafayette  would  think 
of  the  development  of  his  adventure.  He  well 
knew  that  he  brought  the  help  of  French  arms 
to  the  cause  of  American  independence.  His 
pride  was  to  be  the  companion  in  arms  of  your 
great  Washington ;  he  might  well  suppose  that  the 
independence  thus  implanted  on  your  soil  would 
long  flourish  and  that  his  name  would  be  revered 
by  all  American  hearts  and  consciences.  But 
could  he  foresee  that  one  hundred  and  forty  years 
later,  republican  France,  after  years  of  monarchy, 
after  winning  its  own  independence,  after  helping 
other  nations  to  win  theirs,  would  finally  be  drawn 

21 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

against  its  will  into  the  vastest  conflict  known  to 
history;  and  that  other  Frenchmen  coming  to 
your  land  would  find  not  only  the  proud  memory 
of  his  name,  but  such  expressions  of  gratitude  as 
you  uttered  a  few  moments  ago.  Let  me  say, 
however,  without  diminishing  in  France  itself  the 
part  France  has  played,  that  already  through 
Lafayette  himself  you  have  paid  in  part  your  debt 
of  gratitude.  It  is  because  Lafayette  came  to 
this  land  in  his  youth,  it  is  because  he  lived  side 
by  side  with  your  great  and  simple  Washington,  it 
is  because  he  saw  the  rise  of  your  puissant  Ameri- 
can independence,-  that  he  was  able  to  bring  back 
to  France  the  lessons  and  virtues  that  were  taught 
him  here;  and  that  in  his  maturity  and  green  old 
age  he  brought  to  our  land  the  benefit  of  liberal 
ideas,  of  the  lofty  conscience  and  wide  outlook  he 
owed  to  your  land.  Thanks  to  you  he  was  in 
France,  from  1815  on  till  his  death,  one  of  the 
most  stalwart  pioneers  of  republican  and  demo- 
cratic ideas;  and  it  is  to  him  we  owe  in  part 
the  republican  conquests  we  have  made.  Thus, 
when  we  recall  all  these  glorious  memories  that 
seem  to  mingle  in  the  folds  of  our  two  flags,  we  can 
show  the  world  what  two  great  democracies  can 
do.  Absolute  monarchs  imagine  that  they  can 
conquer  other  peoples  by  the  marriages  they  make, 
and  by  setting  on  all  the  thrones  of  Europe  their 
relatives  and  representatives.  But  we  draw  closer 
the  links  that  bind  our  hearts  together  by  daily 

22 


ADDRESS  BY  M.   VIVIANI 

contacts,  by  daily  exchanges  of  our  feelings  and  our 
thoughts,  by  a  daily  communion  of  souls,  by  the 
daily  contemplation  of  our  great  common  liberty. 
And  thus  our  brotherly  friendship  did  not  need  to 
be  written  in  treaties,  for  it  was  a  living  force  in  our 
hearts  and  souls.  And  so  in  the  tragic  days  that 
came  upon  France,  in  those  hours  decisive,  not  only 
in  its  history,  but  in  the  history  of  the  world,  it 
was  a  comfort  and  help  to  feel,  from  the  beginning, 
the  vast  soul  of  America  beat  in  harmony  with  ours. 
If  any  doubts  as  to  the  justice  of  our  cause  had 
ever  arisen  in  us,  we  should  have  ceased  to  doubt 
when,  looking  across  the  huge  expanse  of  sea,  we 
saw  all  thinking  Americans  turn  to  our  side,  and, 
so  far  as  they  could,  by  their  sympathy,  by  the 
benefits  they  showered  on  the  heads  of  our  dying, 
our  orphans,  prove  to  us  the  ardour  of  a  sympathy 
which  in  those  tragic  hours  raised  and  lifted  us 
above  our  very  selves.  And  if  from  the  first  you 
gave  us  the  inestimable  benefit  of  your  moral  sup- 
port, it  is  because  you  are  a  great  democracy,  it  is 
because  we  are  a  great  democracy;  because  in 
Europe  or  in  France  there  are  freemen  who  were 
thus  agreed  in  soul  to  raise  yet  higher  the  flag  of 
democracy  before  the  onset  of  an  autocracy  which 
is  tottering  to  its  fall.  Already  with  fire  and  sword, 
by  the  valour  of  our  children,  the  strength  of 
our  arms,  we  have  passed  beyond  the  rampart 
it  has  raised,  and  above  it  we  have  spread  the  radi- 
ance of  all  the  ideas  of  liberty. 

23 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

Come  to  us,  American  brothers,  come  and  fight 
side  by  side  with  your  French  brothers,  with  your 
allied  brothers:  come  under  your  glorious  banner 
to  fight  for  the  democracy  of  the  world,  and  show 
all  men  that  when  the  rights  of  a  single  nation  are 
violated,  the  rights  of  all  nations  are  trampled 
under  foot.  In  the  message  of  Mr.  Wilson,  so 
incomparable  in  its  grandeur  and  nobility  that 
it  went  to  the  heart  of  hearts  of  France,  and  that 
the  Government  of  the  Republic  has  placarded 
it  in  every  village  in  France  and  had  it  read  and 
interpreted  to  all  our  children  in  the  schools,  your 
illustrious  President  made  manifest  the  ideas  of 
America.  He  expressed  them  too  magnificently 
for  me  to  attempt  to  express  them  in  turn.  But 
when  I  speak  of  democratic  ideas,  when  I  speak 
of  violated  rights  to  be  avenged,  of  the  suflFerings 
endured  by  those  who  have  fought  for  liberty  and 
can  only  be  repaid  by  victory,  I  cannot  do  better 
to  symbolize  my  thoughts,  to  give  them  concrete 
form,  than  raise  my  glass  in  honour  of  the  illustrious 
President  of  the  United  States. 


24 


VII 
AT  THE  AUDITORIUM,  CHICAGO 

FRIDAY,    MAY   4TH 

AS  I  came  in,  to  the  burning  strains  of  the 
/\  Marseillaise,  which  was  the  war  song  of 
L  \,  our  forefathers  that  bore  them  on  to 
victory  after  victory,  and  also  to  the  strains  of  the 
American  National  Hymn  which  carries  echoes  of 
past  and  future  victories;  as  I  came  into  this  vast 
hall  in  which  the  grace  of  the  women  gathered  to- 
gether here  and  the  virility  of  the  men  give  us  an 
image  of  the  greatness  and  beauty  of  the  American 
people;  as  I  came  in,  I  saw  and  heard  your  acclama- 
tions rising  toward  us  as  we  heard  them  rise  on  our 
arrival  in  this  seething  city,  this  magnificent  capital 
of  the  Middle  West,  it  was  impossible  for  us  to 
suppress  the  pride  and  emotion  that  swelled  up  in 
our  hearts. 

And  when  a  few  moments  ago  we  heard  your 
orators,  Mr.  Bancroft ;  the  Mayor  of  Chicago,  whom 
I  thank  for  the  splendid  welcome  we  received  this 
morning;  and  the  Governor  of  Illinois,  who  spoke 
in  the  name  of  the  State,  1  said  to  myself  (and  1 

25 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

think  you  will  not  accuse  our  just  pride  of  sinking 
to  the  level  of  base  vanity)  that  you  were  indeed 
right  in  loving,  in  admiring  France,  for  no  country 
more  than  she  deserves  all  praise.  What  consti- 
tutes her  greatness  in  the  world,  is  that  she  has  not 
only  laboured  and  suffered  for  herself,  but  that 
throughout  her  long  history  her  eyes  have  been 
fixed  on  all  mankind;  it  is  to  all  mankind  her 
thoughts  have  ever  gone.  She  it  was  that  accom- 
plished the  French  Revolution  and  who,  through 
that  Revolution,  has  enlightened  the  whole  world; 
she  it  is  who  in  the  nineteenth  century  educated 
the  other  peoples  in  her  ideals,  and  held  in  her 
grasp  the  banner  of  emancipation  toward  which 
from  all  the  corners  of  the  earth  the  oppressed 
look  longingly.  And  if,  in  1871,  by  a  decree  of 
fate,  her  glory  seemed  to  suffer  eclipse,  if  she  has 
known  defeat,  after  defeat  she  has  sought  and 
found  fresh  vigour  in  the  labours  of  peace.  She 
had  forgotten  nothing;  she  gazed  with  broken 
heart  and  streaming  eyes  at  her  violated  frontier, 
at  Alsace-Lorraine,  which  shall  be  ours  once  more 
to-morrow,  not  by  conquest,  but  by  right,  because 
it  is  ours,  and  shall  be  by  right  restored  to  us. 

And  meanwhile  she  gathered  fresh  strength;  she 
rose  once  more  in  the  esteem  of  all  nations;  she 
was  so  profoundly  attached  to  peace  that  she  sent 
the  children  who  might  have  defended  her  away 
to  colonize  other  lands.  And  yet  for  ten  years 
she  has  been  systematically  brow-beaten  and  black- 

26 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

mailed.  First  came  Tangier,  then  Casablanca, 
then  Agadir:  by  turns  she  was  hectored  and  in- 
sulted; and  yet  remained  pacific  and  unmoved, 
until  in  19 14  she  was  summoned  to  break  her 
written  treaties,  bow  her  head,  humiliate  her 
national  honour.  But  as  Mr.  Bancroft  so  truly 
said,  no  country  can  be  asked  to  despise  itself. 
The  supreme  end  of  life  is  not  peace;  it  is  honour 
for  men,  and  for  nations  their  independence. 

And  then  what  a  spectacle  did  France  offer  the 
world!  Oh,  doubtless  German  slanders  had  repre- 
sented her  as  corrupt  and  dissolute:  it  was  a  mere 
jest  to  march  against  so  frivolous  a  nation  which 
would  capitulate  at  the  first  shock  of  battle: 
Germany  dreamt  that  in  a  few  hours,  a  few  days  at 
most,  the  souls  of  Frenchmen  and  the  power  of 
France  v/ould  be  beaten  to  the  ground.  And  be- 
cause they  had  come  to  study  France  in  certain 
haunts  of  amusement  where  Frenchmen  were  never 
seen;  because  they  knew  not  the  real  France, 
the  France  of  our  factories,  the  France  of  our  soil, 
the  France  of  intellectual  labour;  because,  even 
through  this  transparent  veil,  the  true  France  was 
hidden  from  them,  they  wantonly  entered  into  this 
war  with  the  full  assurance  conquest  would  be  a 
matter  of  a  few  months,  and  victory  secured. 

And  then  what  did  you  see?  However  far 
removed  you  may  be  in  distance  from  our  land,  it 
is  not  possible  that  so  admirable  a  spectacle,  the 
greatest  France  has  ever  given,  should  not  have 

27 


ADDRESS   BY  M.   VIVIANI 

been  revealed  to  all  your  eyes.  Frenchmen, 
divided  into  hostile  groups,  and  political  sets  for 
ever  at  war.  Frenchmen  who  were  said  never  to  be 
able  to  agree,  to  a  man  rose  under  the  Flag  of 
France;  and  as  children  who  have  quarrelled  erst- 
while at  once  answer  the  call  of  their  mother,  all 
the  children  of  France  answered  the  call  of  their 
country. 

From  you  we  have  nothing  to  conceal.  The 
first  shock  was  a  fearful  one.  I  do  not  think  that 
in  all  history  a  single  people  ever  remained  more 
resolute  and  dauntless  under  the  tempest  of  steel 
and  fire  that  was  unchained  against  us.  We  stood 
undaunted:  but  our  hearts  felt  the  impact  of  an 
avalanche  of  two  millions  of  men.  The  German 
machine  was  well  organized :  for  forty  years  no  cog 
was  lacking  in  it;  and  in  that  machine  that  knew 
not  the  rule  of  the  individual,  in  which  a  man 
counted  for  nothing,  in  which  the  machine  was  all, 
in  that  machine  all  was  ready.  And  you  know 
what  happened.  Serbia  trampled  under  foot, 
murdered,  simply  because  it  was  weak;  Belgium 
summoned  to  throw  open  her  frontiers  to  her 
invader  and  refusing,  hurling  herself  in  spite  of  her 
material  weakness,  in  the  full  splendour  of  moral 
greatness  and  strength,  because  she  would  leave  no 
stain  on  the  pages  of  her  history,  offering  up  the 
blood  of  her  children  to  save  her  honour.  And 
England,  unshakeable  as  we  were,  because  her 
signature  was  on   a   treaty   and   she  would   not 

28 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

betray  her  faith,  she  also  rose  with  us.  But  in  the 
early  days  of  the  campaign  we,  the  children  of 
France,  almost  alone  bore  the  onset  of  the  aval- 
anche. We  do  not  pretend  not  to  have  yielded 
physically  for  a  short  space — Yes,  ever  fighting, 
struggling  against  overwhelming  odds,  scattering 
the  corpses  of  our  sons  on  the  roads  we  retreated 
along,  we  retreated  tactically  until  the  day  when, 
under  my  Premiership,  the  Marshal,  who  was  then 
a  General  only,  warned  us,  as  early  as  the  23rd  of 
August,  that  his  battle  plan  was  fixed,  and  that 
he  had  communicated  it  to  his  Generals:  until  the 
4th  of  September  (and  by  one  of  those  happy 
coincidences  of  history  that  date  was  the  birthday 
of  the  Third  Republic)  when  our  troops  received  the 
order  to  march  forward,  to  march  forward  against 
the  enemy,  the  invaders  of  our  territory.  And 
then  our  poor  soldiers,  worn  out  by  twenty  con- 
secutive days  and  nights  of  fighting,  exhausted, 
without  sleep,  without  proper  food,  after  fighting 
day  and  night  for  all  that  period,  answered  the  call 
of  their  chief;  they  rallied  to  his  call  and  with 
smiling  lips  and  radiant  eyes  along  the  fighting  line, 
to  the  sound  of  the  drum  and  clarion,  marched 
against  the  enemy;  and  in  the  space  of  a  few  days 
fifty  kilometres  of  French  territory  were  freed. 

Perhaps  the  details  of  that  great  historic  battle 
are  not  familiar  to  you;  they  were  concealed  from 
you:  the  Germans  kept  them  to  themselves,  so 
long  as  it  was  possible  to  conceal  them  from  the 

29 


ADDRESS  BY  M,  VIVIANI 

rest  of  the  world.  But  the  power  of  truth  is  too 
great;  it  is  impossible  that  that  glorious  battle,  the 
greatest  France  ever  fought,  should  be  all  unknown 
to  you.  In  that  battle  we  remained  faithful  to 
the  mission  of  France.  And  do  you  know  why  the 
soldiers  of  the  Marne  fought  as  they  did?  It  is 
because  they  were  the  soldiers  of  a  democratic 
army,  in  which  the  most  capable  man  can  climb  to 
the  top  of  the  hierarchy,  in  which  the  highest 
officers  are  the  friends  and  comrades  of  their  sol- 
diers. And  if  they  fought  thus  it  was,  let  me  tell 
you,  because  all  the  history  of  France  was  behind 
them,  and  was  familiar  to  them,  because  they  were 
the  descendants  of  the  soldiers  of  Valmy  who  under 
the  French  Revolution  had  already  saved  France 
and  the  liberty  of  the  world;  because  they  were 
also  the  descendants  of  Charles  Martel's  soldiers 
who  in  the  Plains  of  Poitiers  stayed  the  avalanche 
of  the  Barbarians,  and  thus  fulfilled  the  historic 
mission  of  France. 

And  they  vanquished.  And  then  you  came  to 
us;  you  came  to  us  from  the  first.  And  I  seek  in 
vain  words  to  tell  our  infinite  gratitude  for  the 
moral  support  you  gave  us.  You  came  to  us  with 
full  hearts,  smiling.  I  still  see  in  my  mind's  eye, 
in  the  Paris  ambulances,  and  in  the  ambulances 
on  the  front,  those  American  women  who  bent 
over  the  beds  of  our  dying  and  wounded  men  and 
calmed  the  anguish  of  their  livid  brows  by  the 
sweetness  of  their  beauty.     I    see  your  doctors 

30 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

liastening  at  the  call  of  our  doctors  to  shower  their 
benefits,  without  reward,  on  the  sufferings  of  our 
wounded.  1  yet  hear  the  orphans  of  France  ap- 
pealing to  the  Government  of  the  Republic  to 
thank  the  Americans  who  showered  kindness  on 
their  poor,  fair,  young  heads,  their  innocent  heads. 
And  1  thank  you,  citizens  of  Chicago,  men  and 
women,  for  what  from  the  first  hour  on  you  have 
never  ceased  to  do.  We  know  of  your  admirable 
Bazaar,  which  through  your  devotion  brought  in 
an  enormous  sum.  I  thank  those  who  subscribed 
to  the  fifty-four  ambulances  which  we  have  re- 
ceived and  who  to-morrow,  at  the  call  of  their 
friends,  will  subscribe  yet  more  to  increase  the 
number.  I  thank  the  Press  of  Chicago  which,  by 
helping  us  to  make  the  truth  known,  has  fought 
distinterestedly  for  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice 
and  rendered  the  greatest  service  to  France  and  her 
allies.  But  that  was  not  enough  to  content  you. 
Not  only  by  material  benefits  have  you  shown  your 
good  will:  you  have  shown  it  in  ways  more  moving 
yet.  And  I  cannot  do  better  than  repeat  the 
words  which  just  now  rose  in  my  heart  and  were 
said  by  the  orators  of  your  nation — We  have  been 
received  in  the  name  of  the  State  like  brothers,  in 
the  name  of  the  City  like  brothers,  in  the  name  of 
your  organizing  committee  like  brothers.  You 
came  to  us!  Why?  In  the  first  place  why  did  you 
come  with  full  hands  to  bring  all  these  benefits  to 
our  country?     Moved  by  your  kind  hearts,  un- 

^1 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

doubtedly.  But  let  me  say  that  however  glowing 
were  your  hearts,  that  was  not  the  only  reason. 
It  was  not  possible  even  when  you  were  chained 
down  to  the  duties  of  neutrality,  that  your  reason 
should  not  speak,  and  that  your  approval  of 
France's  cause  should  not  arise  from  your  out- 
raged consciences.  It  was  not  possible  you  should 
not  recognize  the  justice  of  our  cause,  not  see  that 
France  was  not  only  fighting  to  defend  its  rights, 
but  to  defend  those  of  all  peoples,  the  liberty  of 
man.  And  all  this  was  clearly  manifest  when 
under  the  guidance  of  your  illustrious  President 
you  entered  this  war. 

Just  now  Mr.  Bancroft  was  enumerating  the 
causes  of  the  war  and,  in  flaming  words,  he  said 
what  were  its  deeper  causes,  and  that  it  was  suffi- 
cient to  question  your  own  history  to  discover 
them.  Doubtless,  like  ourselves,  you  entered  this 
war  under  the  sting  of  German  insults,  in  order 
that  the  honour  of  the  nation  formed  by  Wash- 
ington should  suffer  no  humiliation,  in  order  to 
avenge  your  dead  and  dying,  the  children  and  the 
women  murdered  on  the  desolate,  bleak,  high  seas, 
at  night,  in  winter,  by  the  criminal  hands  of  those 
we  are  fighting  against  together.  You  went  into 
this  war  for  that.  But  not  for  that  alone.  Was  it 
possible  for  you  to  see  through  the  immense  dis- 
tances that  separate  us  the  frightful  spectacle 
which  unchained  Europe  shows?  Possible  to  see 
all  the  blood  spilt;  so  many  martyrs  falling  in  a 

32 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

sacred  cause:  possible  to  count  the  thousands  of 
dead,  wounded,  and  sick:  possible  to  count  the 
mourning  women  whose  pride  and  sorrow  are 
hidden  under  their  black  veils:  possible  to  count 
one  by  one  all  our  orphans:  possible  to  contem- 
plate such  sights  without  deep  emotion  and  a  re- 
volt of  your  souls:  possible  to  see  the  Marne,  the 
Yser,  the  Somme,  Verdun,  where  a  fraction  of 
the  French  Army  held  back  a  million  men:  and 
see,  from  far  away,  the  lightnings  of  the  tremen- 
dous battle  rise  above  the  immortal  city  to  form 
the  luminous  beacon-light  which  illuminates  the 
whole  world;  was  it  possible,  I  say,  to  see  all  this 
and  not  feel  your  hearts  thrill  and  burn?  No;  it 
was  not  possible.  And  for  months  past  I  have 
been  saying  to  myself  that  it  was  not  possible. 
When  French  democracy,  which  made  the  French 
Revolution,  which  gave  directing  thoughts  to  all 
Europe,  which  long  ago  sent  its  flags,  its  generals 
and  its  soldiers  to  fight  for  independence;  when 
that  democracy  was  struggling  for  its  life,  could 
you  stand  aloof?  No;  that  was  the  one  thing 
impossible. 

No:  You  understand  the  deeper  meaning  of 
this  war.  The  allied  peoples  are  not  fighting  for 
territories:  they  are  not  fighting  to  satisfy  some 
morbid  ambition!  No.  The  stake  is  a  greater 
one;  it  is  the  fate  of  the  whole  world  we  now  bear 
in  our  hands.  In  them  are  the  fate  of  free  men, 
of  democracy.     And  it  is  because  you  felt  that 

33 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

this  contest  between  democracy  and  autocracy 
must  be  fought  to  its  bitter  end:  it  is  because  you 
felt  that  so  long  as  the  peoples  do  not  possess,  as 
you  and  we  do,  governing  assemblies,  responsible 
governments,  war  might  again  be  let  loose:  be- 
cause you  felt  that,  so  long  as  there  are  forces  of 
aggression  in  the  world,  no  democracy  can  live  in 
peace,  that  you  rallied  to  our  side  at  the  call  of 
your  President  and  the  call  of  democracy  all  the 
world  over. 

Come  to  us  then:  come  as  brothers  to  the  fight 
we  are  fighting  for  right  and  truth  and  justice. 
But  remember  well  that  out  of  this  war  must  come 
the  great  lesson  it  holds.  I  have  already  said 
it  is  an  empty  and  deadly  dream  for  democracies 
to  imagine  they  can  live  under  purely  ideal  con- 
ditions and  that  they  are  threatened  by  no  evil 
or  perverse  powers,  if  the  democracies  do  not  arm 
themselves  for  their  defence;  if  they  do  not  possess 
free  men  ready  to  seize  the  sword,  not  for  conquest, 
but  for  the  defence  of  their  native  land;  sooner  or 
later  the  imperial  eagle  will  swoop  down  on  them 
at  an  hour  when  it  will  be  too  late  to  organize 
resistance. 

Consider  our  example.  We  are  a  people  of  forty 
millions  of  men.  What  are  forty  millions  in  com- 
parison with  the  one  hundred  millions  of  the 
American  people?  But  we  were  organized ;  but  we 
had  a  national  force;  but  we  had  officers,  generals; 
but  we  had  a  chief;  all  was  ready,  so  far  at  least 

34 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

as  any  democracy  can  be  ready:  and  notwithstand- 
ing, by  a  fatality,  for  some  days  it  seemed  as  if 
we  might  be  annihilated.  Therefore,  let  democra- 
cies arm  in  their  own  defence  so  long  as  in  the 
wide  world  there  remains  a  threatening  autocracy. 
But  it  shall  not  long  threaten.  It  is  not  to  be 
believed  that  with  all  our  coalized  forces  we  cannot 
crush  an  autocracy  at  which  we  have  in  these  last 
years  struck  such  powerful  blows:  it  is  not  possible 
that  the  absolute  monarchs  who,  in  the  Central 
Empires,  by  their  bloody  whims  dispose  of  the  des- 
tinies of  the  world,  should  be  allowed  to  continue. 
We  will  reach  them:  we  will  carry  to  their  ears  the 
cry  of  oppressed  peoples:  we  shall  declare  that  it  is 
unthinkable  that  the  strong  should  forever  oppress 
the  weak :  we  shall  exact  peace  for  all,  liberty  for  all, 
equality  for  all.  And  when  we  have  won  the  vic- 
tory of  Democracy,  when  as  a  free  people  we  have 
brought  our  labours  to  full  consummation,  then  all 
-our  thoughts  will  turn  to  the  victims  of  this  war. 
Together  we  will  go  to  lay  the  palms  of  justice  on 
the  tombs  of  our  children;  and  you  in  your 
pilgrimage  will  repair  to  Mount  Vernon  to  ask 
the  great  soul  of  Washington:  Founder  of  the 
Republic;  Father  of  your  country,  have  we  done 
well  in  doing  this?  Are  you  well  pleased  with 
your  children?  Have  they  rightly  understood  the 
glorious  tradition  you  inscribed  on  our  flag? 

And,  rest  assured,  his  great  shade  will  arise  to 
thank  you,  and  to  bless  you. 

35 


vm 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 

saturday,  may  5th 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  CANNOT  hope  to  sustain  the  reputation  given 
me  by  the  kindness  of  the  American  people; 
and  you  will  excuse  me  for  not  rising  to  your 
expectations.  But,  as  the  words  1  am  going  to  say 
come  from  my  heart,  I  trust  they  will  naturally 
go  to  yours. 

I  cannot  say  how  deeply  moved  we  were  when, 
in  this  immense  park,  our  eye  caught  sight  of  this 
imposing  University  building  whose  massive  struc- 
ture seemed  to  reveal  materially  to  us  the  magni- 
tude of  the  work  that  has  been  accomplished  here. 
Need  1  say  we  do  not  suddenly  discover  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Chicago  University,  nor  of  the  other 
great  American  Universities.  We  already  knew 
what  those  Universities  have  accomplished,  and 
we  had  hardly  landed  in  this  country  when  we 
were  reminded  of  it  by  our  eminent  Ambassador, 
M.  Jusserand,  who  is  attached  to  you  by  so  many 
bonds  of  sympathy  and  who,  in  the  last  few 
years,  has  worked  with  a  silent  activity,  worthy 

36 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

of  the  country  he  represents,  against  the  strenuous 
and  noisy  endeavours  of  another  ambassador, 
whom  you  have  sent  back  to  his  native  land.  In 
connection  with  his  name,  let  me  mention  that 
of  our  Consul,  M.  Barthelemy,  who  by  his  con- 
stant self-possession  and  tact,  has  gained  not 
only  for  himself  but  for  the  whole  of  France, 
sympathies  of  which,  I  may  say,  he  is  fully 
worthy. 

We  knew  that  the  American  University  was  a 
centre  of  study  and  hard  work,  but  we  also  knew 
that  it  was  a  centre  of  patriotism,  which  sent  most 
of  the  volunteers  who  have  enlisted,  fought  and 
died  for  France,  the  ambulances  which  took  care 
of  our  wounded  on  our  battlefields,  the  aviators 
who  have  risen  to  the  same  height  as  ours  and 
fought  under  our  flag  until,  after  you  declared  war, 
they  won  new  fame  as  the  Lafayette  Squadron 
under  the  American  flag.  Let  me  pay  a  tribute 
to  the  memory  of  those  valiant  aviators  who,  be- 
fore leaving  their  native  shores,  had  given  death 
a  rendezvous,  and  who  fell  for  France;  and  to 
that  of  many  others  who,  in  the  full  bloom  of  youth, 
have  sacrificed  their  dreams  and  their  future  to 
our  French  motherland  and  to  the  cause  of  liberty. 
I  can  hardly  find  words  to  express  my  thanks  to 
the  many  men  who,  in  the  generosity  of  their  souls, 
have  enlisted  in  our  Foreign  Legion,  and  have 
faced  the  enemy  on  the  French  front,  side  by  side 
with  the  French  and  English  soldiers. 

37 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

I  have  just  learned  with  deep  emotion  that  you 
intend  to  raise  a  memorial  to  French  science,  to 
science  as  you  conceive  it,  in  the  form  of  a  book 
which  you  are  about  to  pubHsh,  and  which  contains 
forty  chapters  signed  by  illustrious  University  men. 
But  it  is  not  enough  that  at  long  intervals,  after 
long  silence  and  by  occasional  visits,  we  should  ex- 
change our  views  and  opinions.     I  am  a  former 
Minister  of  Public   Education,  and  I   should  be 
happy  to  see  the  sending  of  American  students  to 
French  Universities,  promoted  by  the  ample  fel- 
lowships   you   grant   your  students,  and    by  an 
active  propaganda  such  as  the  one  yQU  are  about 
to  start  in  your  Universities.     They  will  enable 
your  students  to  complete  their  scientific  educa- 
tion In  France,  after  acquiring  a  solid  foundation 
in    America.     1    look   forward    to   a    time   when 
we  shall  settle  an  old  question  that  should  have 
been  settled  long  ago.     1  refer  to  the  equivalence 
of  diplomas,  which,  by  giving  the  American  degrees 
the  same  rights  as  French  degrees  in  our  Universi- 
ties,   will    enable   your   students   to   finish    their 
education    in    France    without    any    unnecessary 
delay.     For  in  what  other  country  could  they  find 
better  instruction?     It  is  not  for  me  to  remind 
the   professors   of  this   University,   who  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  science  and  literature  of  the 
whole  world,  or  its  president,   Mr.  Judson,  the 
distinguished   jurist,   whose   loftiness  of  outlook, 
vast   knowledge  and   steadfast  purpose  are  well 

38 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

known  to  us,  of  the  accomplishments  of  the  French 
Nation  in  the  world  of  science.  As  Mr.  Judson 
himself  said,  in  words  for  which  I  thank  him: 
From  a  philosophical  point  of  view  are  there  any 
teachings  comparable  to  those  of  French  philoso- 
phy? Among  us  you  would  fmd  the  ever-burning 
light  of  science  founded  by  Claude  Bernard  and 
his  foremost  pupil,  D'Arsonval.  As  regards  mathe- 
matics, are  not  such  men  as  Appell  and  our  Minis- 
ter of  War,  Painleve,  capable  of  teaching  mathe- 
matics? Cannot  the  science  whose  monopoly  has 
so  long  been  held  by  our  learned  director  of  scientific 
education,  the  Dean  of  the  Paris  Faculty  of  Science, 
be  diffused  to-day  as  well?  And  when  I  think  of 
such  men  as  Leon  Renault  in  legal  science,  and  Lan- 
son  in  literature,  it  seems  as  if  I  was  beholding  an 
illustrious  Areopagus,  a  gathering  of  scientists  who 
are  the  honour  and  glory  of  France,  and  who,  let  me 
assure  you,  are  quite  capable  of  teaching  science, 
literature,  or  law,  to  such  of  you  as  look  for  such  in- 
struction. I  may  say  that  in  France  you  would  fmd 
teachings  worthy  of  yours.  Undoubtedly,  there  are 
great  masters  in  Germany.  Ours,  unfortunately, 
are  too  modest:  they  do  not  fill  the  would  with 
the  clamour  of  their  reputations.  But,  as  regards 
method,  clear  or  brilliant  teaching,  gift  for  syn- 
thesis, they  are  true  masters.  And  in  France,  in 
Paris,  in  that  illustrious  Sorbonne,  which  for  four- 
teen years  1  had  the  honour  of  representing  in  the 
French  Parliament,  you  would  find  a  class  of  science 

39 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

and  studies  such  as  you  would  not  find  in  Germany. 
We  know  what  education  and  science  wrongly 
conceived  may  lead  to.  They  lead  straight  to  Kul- 
tur,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  oppression  of  the  people 
by  a  small  class  of  men.  It  was  Kultur  which  gave 
birth  to  that  generation  of  men  which  has  fallen  into 
such  a  state  of  folly  that  it  believes  it  the  duty  of 
the  whole  universe  to  kneel  at  its  feet.  It  taught 
a  generation  of  men  that  no  treaties  should  be  re- 
spected, that  there  was  neither  right  nor  law,  and 
that  the  strong  should  dominate  the  weak.  Could 
two  great  free  peoples  like  America  and  France 
kneel  before  such  samples  of  German  science? 

American  and  French  Universities  are  alike.  I 
will  tell  you  what  links  connect  them.  The  duty 
of  a  University  is  not  only  to  form  the  mind  of 
young  men,  to  diffuse  science,  to  make  writers,  sci- 
entists, physicians  and  lawyers,  to  enable  men  to 
teach  in  their  turn  or  to  earn  an  honourable  living 
in  their  profession.  That  is  part  of  its  duty,  but 
it  would  not  be  true  to  its  real  mission,  and  to  its 
duty  toward  mankind,  if  at  the  same  time  as  it 
forms  scientists,  it  did  not  form  men.  It  would 
not  be  true  to  its  duty  if,  at  the  same  time  as  it 
elevates  the  mind,  it  did  not  elevate  the  soul. 
Professors  should  gather  not  only  to  dispense  in- 
struction, but  form  men. 

We,  in  France,  when  the  hour  of  fate  struck,  had 
ample  proof  that  our  Universities  and  our  teachers 
had  brought  forth  men. 

40 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIAN! 

1  wish  I  could  find  fit  words  to  relate  the  story 
of  those  young  men  of  our  High  Normal  School, 
who  were  to  form  a  scientific  and  literary  hier- 
archy, and  were  waiting  to  be  raised  to  the  rank  of 
college  teachers.  When  war  was  declared,  they 
left  for  the  front;  and  Marshal  Jofi're,  who  had 
them  under  his  command,  could  tell  you  that  out 
of  those  students  of  the  High  Normal  School  came 
his  best  officers.  It  was  a  wonderful  alliance  of 
science  and  truth,  a  full  proof  that  Universities 
not  only  shape  minds,  but  hearts  also.  Hecatombs 
of  those  students  have  fallen  in  the  first  line,  flag 
in  hand,  and  1  cannot  do  better  than  apply  to 
them  those  rhymes  of  our  great  national  poet, 
Victor  Hugo: 

lis  sont  tous  sur  le  dos,  couches  en  braves  devant  Dieu, 
Et  si  leurs  yeux  s'ouvraient,  ils  verraient  le  ciel  bleu. 

(They  have  fallen,  like  heroes,  their  brow  to  heaven,  in 

the  eyes  of  God, 
And  if  their  eyes  could  open  they  would  see  the  blue 

sky  above  them.) 

In  words  that  have  deeply  touched  us,  Mr.  Jud- 
son  said  that  America  owed  France  a  debt  of 
gratitude.  You  have  paid  it  in  part  already,  and 
besides,  we  are  too  much  like  brothers  to  stand, 
with  regard  to  one  another,  in  the  position  of  a 
debtor  and  a  creditor.  We  are  too  closely  linked 
in  a  great  common  task  to  put  forth  any  such 

41 


ADDRESS   BY  M,  VIVIANI 

claims.  It  is  not  only  to  France,  heroic  and 
valorous  France,  which,  through  its  courageous 
children,  is  fighting  to  defend  its  territory,  but  to 
the  world,  to  humanity,  to  liberty,  and  civiliza- 
tion, that  you  owe  a  debt,  and  it  is  to  them  you  will 
pay  it.  It  is  in  order  that  they  may  not  perish,  it  is 
because,  as  you  aptly  said,  the  fall  of  France  would 
be  a  disaster  to  the  world,  that  you  must  arise  and 
fight.  You  have  said  that  you  would  give  your 
last  man  and  the  last  heart-beat  to  the  cause.  1 
thank  you,  Mr.  President,  for  those  manly  words, 
carved  as  it  were  in  bronze,  and  which  we  will 
repeat  to  our  fellow  citizens  in  France.  When  they 
fall  from  the  lips  of  a  man  of  such  eminence  and 
authority,  who  knows  the  weight  of  words  and  the 
value  of  promises,  they  cannot  fail  to  find  a  way 
to  our  consciences  and  our  hearts.  Yes,  to  the 
last  man,  yes,  to  the  last  heart-beat,  under  the  flag 
of  liberty,  so  that  universal  democracy  may  prevail 
over  the  world !  To  the  last  man,  to  the  last  heart- 
beat, so  that  free  men  may  live  proud  and  happy; 
to  the  last  man,  to  the  last  beating  of  hearts,  so 
that  at  last  free  peoples  may  look  forward  to  ever- 
lasting international  peace,  and  that  the  children 
of  our  children  may  live  and  work,  free  and  peace- 
ful, and  enjoy  the  blessings  of  the  sunshine  without 
having  to  fear  the  return  of  such  crimes  as  we  have 
witnessed. 

I  thank  you,  Mr.  President,  for  those  kind  words: 
1  thank  you,  Gentlemen,  for  the  support  you  have 

42 


ADDRESS  BY  M.   VIVIANI 

given  us.  When  1  look  in  your  open  faces,  on 
which  every-day  work  and  deep  thoughts  have  left 
an  indelible  mark,  I  feel  that  there  is  a  definite 
promise  in  those  words.  I  thank  you  for  your 
welcome  and  for  your  ovations.  But  it  is  not  to 
us  your  welcome  goes,  for  we  are  nothing:  it  goes 
to  our  heroic  France,  whom  you  know  so  well, 
and  whom  you  venerate  as  she  deserves  to  be 
venerated.  In  the  name  of  France,  as  well  as  in 
the  name  of  all  the  universities  of  France,  which, 
as  Minister  of  Public  Education,  I  had  the  honour 
of  representing  several  times,  I  drink  your  health, 
Mr.  President,  and  I  drink  to  the  honour  and  great- 
ness of  Chicago  University,  and  to  the  glory  of  all 
American  Universities. 


43 


IX 
AT  THE  CHICAGO  STOCK  YARDS 

SATURDAY,  MAY   5TH 


M 


Citizens  of  Chicago: 

Y  FIRST  words  in  this  vast  and  enthusi- 
astic assembly  are  a  salute  to  the  Army 
of  the  United  States  here  represented, 
to  the  Navy  represented  here  by  the  brothers 
of  those  who  have  already  gone  to  the  coasts  of 
France.  Next,  in  the  name  of  all  the  working 
classes  of  France,  I  greet  the  workers  of  Chicago 
who  to-day  have  left  their  tasks  to  listen  to  the 
words  France  brings.  1  greet  all  the  working  men 
and  women  here  assembled  and  fused  into  one 
mass,  to  whatever  race  they  may  belong,  citizens 
alike  of  these  formidable  United  States,  Slavs, 
Greeks,  Bohemians,  Poles,  Russians,  brothers  of 
those  who  are  now  labouring  in  the  cause  of  the 
independence  and  emancipation  of  Russia,  all 
those,  in  a  word,  who  have  come  here  to  welcome 
us.  And  I  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  to  refute 
in  the  name  of  France  one  of  the  vilest  slanders 
directed  against  us.  For  many  months  efforts 
have  been  made  to  persuade  you  that  this  war 

44 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

was  a  capitalists'  war.  Workmen  who  are  listen- 
ing to  me,  do  you  think  if  that  were  true  your 
brothers  in  Europe  would  have  risen  to  a  man  and 
flocked  to  our  flags?  Do  you  believe  that  the 
French  workers  of  the  General  Federation  of 
Labour,  of  the  English  Trade  Unions  would  have 
taken  up  arms  to  defend  the  interests  of  capital- 
ism? 

The  truth  is  that  no  greater  deed  was  ever  ac- 
complished by  men  than  the  deeds  you  see  to-day. 

This  is  no  war  of  conquest:  this  is  no  war  for 
territories.  It  is  fought  for  all  humanity,  for  de- 
mocracy, for  liberty. 

And  that  is  why  in  answer  to  the  speakers  you 
have  just  heard  and  who  are  your  fellow  country- 
men, all  with  one  soul  you  will  join  in  this  war, 
and  come  to  the  help  of  France  and  her  allies,  to 
fight  for  civilization.  You  will  avenge  the  sol- 
diers of  the  Marne  who  fell  for  right  and  justice. 
You  will  avenge  all  the  heroes  who  for  three  years 
have  held  back  the  German  threat  to  the  world, 
thrown  barbarism  back,  and  will  shortly  hurl  the 
oppressor  back  to  his  lair. 

Up  then,  citizens!  To  arms  to  defend  liberty, 
to  defend  justice!  Our  meeting  place  shall  be  on 
the  battlefield  that  liberates.  There  we  will  com- 
plete the  great  work  Washington  began.  As  an 
orator  said  just  now.  No  man  has  a  right  to  live 
for  himself  alone,  to  die  for  himself  alone:  no 
people  has  the  right  to  live  for  itself  alone,  no 

45 


ADDRESS   BY  M.   VIVIANI 

people  to  die  for  itself  alone.  We  all  owe  the 
same  debt  to  civilization,  to  democracy.  For  them 
we  will  fight  to  the  death.  Long  live  France! 
Long  live  the  United  States  of  America! 


46 


X 

IN   KANSAS  CITY,  MISSOURI 

SUNDAY,  MAY  6tH 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

BEFORE  we  arrived  here  my  fellow  coun- 
trymen and  I  knew  the  forces  of  organiza- 
tion and  production  this  city  contains. 
And  my  first  words  must  go  to  the  laborious 
patience  and  courage  of  the  men  who  inhabit  this 
state:  yours  are  the  qualities  of  tenacity,  economy, 
and  courage  which  are  all  the  annals  and  the  glory 
of  our  French  peasants'  lives.  Here  to  this  centre 
flow  the  millions  of  bushels  of  wheat  that  make  you, 
1  will  not  say  the  granary  of  the  United  States,  but 
one  of  the  granaries  of  the  world. 

And  1  thank  the  Mayor  of  this  city  for  having 
said  just  now  that  you  were  ready  to  work  for  the 
Allies  and  for  France,  for,  as  he  said  in  admirable 
words,  war  is  not  a  matter  of  munitions  and  cannon 
alone,  but  also  of  provisions  for  those  who  fight  in 
the  line  of  labour  behind  it. 

And  in  what  terms  can  1  express  our  joy  at  seeing 
a  town  at  once  so  beautiful  and  so  full  of  evidences 

47 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

of  power?  Under  the  spring  sunshine  which 
greeted  us  here  we  sawyour  women,  your  children, 
your  charming  young  girls,  the  endless  lines  of 
your  people  all  along  the  roads  welcoming,  in  our 
persons,  France  and  the  Republic.  But  beneath 
the  warm  sun,  among  all  the  radiance  of  spring, 
we  Frenchmen  would  have  felt  a  sort  of  shame  in 
our  joy,  the  shame  of  being  thus  happy  while 
our  land  was  in  mourning  and  our  children  are 
shedding  their  blood,  had  we  not  felt  on  what  mis- 
sion we  came  here,  and  that  the  vast  crowds  that 
hailed  us  were  thrilled  with  the  thought  that  they, 
too,  were  ready  to  fight  the  fight  for  liberty.  How 
can  we  adequately  express  what  we  have  seen 
here,  what  we  have  heard  here,  the  sacred,  the 
unanimous  communion  of  all  creeds  animated  by 
the  same  thoughts  and  expressing  them  in  identi- 
cal words? 

For  my  own  part,  1  can  only  say  how  deeply  I 
personally  was  touched  by  the  spectacle  you  pre- 
sented while  prayers  were  being  said.  I  saw  the 
vast  sea  of  heads  bowed  in  reverence,  and  your 
eyes  uplifted  to  heaven  afterward  as  if  you  sought 
divine  justice  there.  And  1  wondered  how  you 
could  implore  the  God  of  mercy  and  pity  and  in 
the  same  breath  invoke  the  God  of  battles.  But 
you  implored  the  God  of  battles  because  the  God 
of  pity  and  mercy  cannot  but  turn  away  from  the 
bestial  rage  of  men.  You  cannot  forget  that  in 
spite  of  sworn  treaties,  our  adversaries   invaded 

48 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

little  Belgium,  great  in  history  by  reason  of  her 
courage;  you  cannot  forget  they  destroyed  Louvain 
and  bombarded  the  magnificent  cathedral  of 
Rheims,  which  was  the  jewel  of  our  French  archi- 
tecture. But  1  should  be  unjust  to  the  splendour 
of  your  faith  if  1  supposed  for  one  moment  that 
any  individual  feeling  animated  you  against  the 
German  hordes  solely  because  they  had  destroyed 
the  sacred  temples  where  your  brethren  and  fellow 
believers  knelt  erstwhile  in  prayer.  It  is  for  higher 
reasons,  as  the  Governor  of  Missouri  said,  that 
you  enter  into  this  war.  It  is  because  you  are 
resolved  this  war  shall  be  the  last;  and,  as  we  are 
resolved  to  carry  it  to  the  bitter  end,  our  common 
victory  is  assured.  You  said  one  moment  ago 
that  you  were  ready  to  give  your  last  man  to 
attain  that  end.     It  is  an  oath. 

We  have  fought  for  life.  For  three  years  France 
has  poured  out  her  blood  on  the  fields  of  battle: 
for  three  years  her  sons  have  been  in  the  trenches: 
during  three  years  thousands  and  thousands  of  our 
children  have  fallen:  all  the  others  are  guarding 
the  battle  line.  Next  August,  three  years  will 
have  elapsed  since  we  stayed  the  German  ava- 
lanche that  was  sweeping  over  French  territory. 
And  why  have  we  fought  thus?  Was  it  to  con- 
quer territories?  No.  For  other  ends.  You 
understand  that:  you  understand  it  so  well  that 
all  your  orators  are  agreed  in  giving  to  this  holy 
war  its  full  meaning  and  gravest  import. 

49 


ADDRESS  BY  M.   VIVIANI 

It  is  not  a  fight  between  armies,  not  between 
men  in  different  uniforms,  but  between  peoples: 
a  fight  between  democracy  and  autocracy. 

Come  then  and  join  us  as  your  speakers  asked 
you  just  now;  when  you  come  to  us,  it  is  not  to 
France  you  come,  but  to  civilization,  to  humanity. 

And  here  1  wish  to  recall  a  generous  expression 
that  went  to  our  hearts:  France  is  so  identified 
with  the  liberty  of  peoples  and  with  civilization 
that  when  one  looks  for  Liberty  one  sees  France. 
It  is  she  who  has  upheld  the  banner  of  Liberty. 
She  it  was  who  in  the  days  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion lit  a  flame  in  all  hearts  and  souls.  From  her 
lips  fell  the  thoughts  of  freedom  which  have  trav- 
ersed the  whole  world,  to  the  icy  steppes  of  Rus- 
sia where  the  fire  of  revolution  is  kindled  even 
now  and  where  we  shall  shortly  see  the  new  govern- 
ment, in  full  control  of  itself  and  all  Russia,  lead 
its  soldiers  to  battle  and  its  citizens  to  final  deliver- 
ance. 

And  it  is  France  which  for  three  long  years  has 
fought,  wept,  bled.  She  it  is  who  counts  the  heavi- 
est toll  of  dead:  she  it  is  who  has  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  widows  and  orphans.  She  has  been  tram- 
pled under  foot  by  her  invaders;  but  step  by  step 
they  retreat,  thanks  to  the  courage  of  our  soldiers, 
thanks  also  to  our  brave  English  allies.  Three 
years  has  France  been  subjected  to  this  life.  Come 
to  her  now:  you  will  come  to  the  cause  of  liberty, 
of  civilization.     Come  to  her.     There  is  no  better 

50 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

way  of  making  democracy  reign  in  the  world, 
democracy  which  alone  can  end  all  wars. 

And  since  you  have  deemed  that  our  presence 
here  was  worthy  to  receive  a  solemn  visible  conse- 
cration, since  your  Mayor,  in  the  name  of  your  city, 
has  given  this  Mission  this  card  of  gold  on  which 
the  liberty  of  your  town  is  inscribed,  thus  making 
us  your  fellow-citizens,  let  me  say  that  we  shall 
treasure  it  with  deepest  gratitude.  But  let  me 
add  also,  Mr.  Mayor,  that  in  our  hearts  more 
precious  and  pure  than  purest  gold  is  inscribed 
the  memory  of  what  we  owe  first  to  Kansas  City, 
then  to  the  State  of  Missouri  and  to  all  this  popu- 
lation and — be  not  envious — to  all  the  United 
States,  to  free  America,  our  Sister  Republic,  which 
at  the  call  of  its  illustrious  President,  Mr.  Wilson, 
has  risen  to  a  man. 

Good-bye,  my  friends.  We  await  you :  we  know 
we  can  rely  upon  your  fidelity  and  courage.  We 
rest  assured  that  you  will  never  desert  your  great 
duty;  that  the  solemn  words  exchanged  to-day 
have  all  the  force  of  an  oath,  and  will  be  carried 
out  to  the  last  syllable. 

Good-bye:  Long  live  the  United  States!  Long 
live  France! 


51 


XI 
AT  ST.  LOUIS,  MISSOURI 

SUNDAY,    MAY   6tH 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

1WISH  my  voice  were  powerful  enough,  and  I 
wish  my  words  could  be  expressed  in  your  own 
language,  so  clear  and  ringing,  so  that  they 
might  reach  across  this  hall  and  at  the  same  time 
find  a  way  to  your  hearts.  But  still,  for  only  a  few 
minutes,  allow  me  to  voice  to-night,  not  only  in 
my  name,  but  in  all  my  countrymen's  name,  to 
whom  you  have  given  such  a  hearty  welcome, 
a  welcome  so  worthy  of  France,  the  feelings  of 
emotion  and  pride  which  are  swelling  up  in  our 
souls. 

We  are  happy  to  fmd  ourselves  in  this  great 
city  of  St.  Louis.  Amidst  your  welcome,  we 
shall  not  forget  that  if  to-day  living  men  stand 
up  to  escort  us,  we  also  find  here  the  shades  of  our 
ancestors,  of  the  first  Frenchmen  who  found  them- 
selves in  this  city.  We  are  happy  to  meet  here 
people  of  all  races,  merged  into  the  very  heart  of 
the  fatherland,  merged  into  the  life  of  this  city, 
and  we  know  that,  whoever  they  may  be,  they 

52 


ADDRHSS   BY  M.   VIVIANI 

remain  unflinchingly  faithful  to  their  American 
fatherland  in  this  vast  conflict,  faithful  to  the 
country  of  which,  first  of  all,  they  are  sons. 

And  I  am  also  happy,  for  my  part,  to  speak  here 
under  the  auspices  of  Mr.  Long,  our  friend,  your 
representative,  and  the  descendant  of  that  illus- 
trious family,  one  of  whom  has  a  statue  on  one 
of  your  squares.  I  am  happy  to  greet  the  venera- 
ble and  distinguished  mother  of  the  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Department  of  State,  who,  ever 
since  we  landed  on  American  soil,  has  stretched 
out  to  us  brotherly  hands,  and  in  whose  heart  we 
feel  the  love  he  bears  to  France,  our  motherland. 

Here,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  you  have  not  lost 
the  memory  of  the  great  historical  event  which 
took  place  here  a  few  months  ago.  It  is  in  this 
hall,  where  you  now  sit,  that  was  held  the  Demo- 
cratic Convention  which  nominated  as  its  Presi- 
dential candidate  your  illustrious  fellow  country- 
man, President  Wilson.  At  that  time  his  own 
party,  and  you,  ladies,  and  you  also,  citizens,  you 
did  not  realize  that  war  was  so  near  at  hand:  you 
were  hoping  you  might  long  enjoy  the  blessings  of 
peace,  and  at  that  very  moment  you  were  going 
through  the  same  drama  that  we,  the  French 
people,  went  through  three  years  ago.  France, 
generous  and  pacific  France,  who  had  made  su- 
preme sacrifices  for  the  peace  of  the  world,  who 
turned  toward  humanity  with  feelings  of  love, 
who  had  one  thought  only:  to  bring  forth  liberty 

53 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

for  all  nations, — this  very  same  France  was  at- 
tacked, and  then  she  rose  for  the  defence  of  her 
honour  and  of  her  independence. 

For  nearly  three  years,  with  her  faithful  allies, 
but,  at  the  start  of  the  conflict,  almost  alone,  she 
has  been  struggling  breast  against  breast,  hand 
against  hand,  weapon  against  weapon.  For  close 
upon  three  years,  in  the  deep  trenches,  the  sons  of 
France  held  in  check  the  enemies  who  were  striving 
to  invade  her:  for  close  upon  three  years,  immortal 
France,  faithful  at  all  times  to  herself,  preserving 
her  sacred  image  pure  through  all  storms,  the 
France  of  to-day,  worthy  of  the  France  of  the  past, 
raises  the  flag  which  is  torn  by  shot  and  shell,  but 
which  is  yet  held  aloft  by  the  valiant  hands  of  her 
soldiers. 

And,  a  few  minutes  ago,  in  that  touching  cere- 
mony, touching  as  are  all  those  earnest  and  solemn 
ceremonies  in  which  soldiers  speak  a  plain  and 
laconic  language,  but  a  language  which  comes 
from  the  depth  of  their  hearts,  when,  in  the  name 
of  the  Fifth  Regiment  of  St.  Louis,  one  of  your 
officers  handed  to  Marshal  Joffre  the  flag  which 
he  at  once  returned  with  a  few  earnest  words,  it 
seemed  to  me  that  I  was  witnessing  a  spectacle 
comparable  to  that  which  I  witnessed  on  the  soil 
of  France.  How  often  have  we  seen  our  Generals 
hand  over  flags  to  our  children:  how  often  have 
we  seen  our  children  leave  for  the  hell  of  the  fight- 
ing line,  their  heads  erect,  their  hearts  full  of  a 

54 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

virile  joy,  for  they  knew  they  were  defending  their 
motherland.  All  of  them,  they  kept  their  eyes 
fixed  on  the  flag,  on  the  flag  which  is  the  symbol 
of  liberty  and  justice. 

And,  just  as  we  were  able  to  preserve  the  flag 
from  any  stain,  just  as  our  children  would  rather 
die  where  they  stood  than  permit  that  sacred  flag 
to  fall  to  the  ground,  just  as  we  realized  that  it 
was  the  soul  of  the  motherland  that  was  being 
carried  forward  in  the  folds  of  the  tricolour  flag; 
in  the  same  way — because  all  people  are  one  in 
that — it  is  the  soul  of  the  American  fatherland 
which  shines  radiant  through  the  Stars  of  the 
American  Flag,  and  Mr.  Mayor  was  right  when 
he  said  that  already  it  is  bringing  us  the  promise 
of  fmal  victory.  To-morrow  that  flag  will  be 
waved  on  the  battlefields.  To-morrow  it  will 
also  know  the  glory  of  conflict.  Oh,  it  was  never 
meant  to  sleep  in  peace  in  a  hall,  to  be  placed  over 
a  monument  and  to  feel  only  the  gentle  breath 
of  a  pacific  wind.  Because  it  was  the  symbol  of  a 
free  fatherland,  it  was  meant  to  face  the  risks  of 
the  battlefields,  and  to  return  in  glory,  so  that 
you  may  keep  it  in  a  temple  high  enough  and 
sacred  enough  to  render  it  the  homage  which  is 
due  to  it. 

Au  revoir,  then.  Soldiers  of  the  Fifth  Regiment, 
sons  of  the  American  fatherland,  you  who  to- 
morrow, clothed  in  warlike  uniform,  will  bring  to 
the  battlefield  all  the  courage  which  you  have 

S5 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANl 

shown  for  one  hundred  and  forty  years.  Au 
revoir,  soldiers  of  the  American  fatherland.  Per- 
haps you  will  meet  over  there  across  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  the  sons  of  the  French  motherland,  the 
sons  of  the  Allies.  All  together,  you  will  march  to 
the  fight.  And  why  will  you  march  to  the  fight? 
Is  it  in  order  to  rend  others,  is  it  to  conquer  terri- 
tory, is  it  to  wrench  away  with  robber  hands,  a 
province  or  a  city?  No,  No.  It  is  not  thus  we 
wage  war;  we  wage  war  for  justice,  for  universal 
democracy,  for  right,  in  order  that  autocracy  may 
perish,  in  order  that  at  last  free  men  may  draw 
free  breath  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  peace  and  in 
the  pursuit  of  their  labours. 


56 


XII 

AT  THE  MISSOURI  ATHLETIC  CLUB, 
Sr.  LOUIS.  MO. 
monday,  may  7th 

Gentlemen: 

ON  E  of  your  previous  speakers  said  that  the 
French  flag  was  the  first  flag  that  ever 
floated  over  this  city;  but,  even  before 
he  recalled  to  our  minds  that  glorious  memory, 
we  already  had  felt  something  of  it  in  our  hearts; 
it  seemed  to  us  that  some  of  the  radiance  shining 
over  this  city  was  reflected  in  its  folds.  For  here 
indeed  a  special  joy  was  in  store  for  us,  here 
in  this  great  city,  where  for  centuries  human  tor- 
rents have  flowed,  leaving  behind  them  alluvial 
deposits  abundant  and  generous.  Here,  beneath 
the  communion  of  souls,  beneath  like  impulses  of 
heart  and  conscience,  we  detected  something  that 
brought  us  nearer  to  France  than  we  have  yet 
been.  And  I  do  not  exaggerate  when  I  say  that 
among  you  we  have  found  the  three  characteristic 
features  of  our  own  country.  For  you  are  endowed 
with  the  sturdy  self-possession  of  our  northern 
populations  which  have  met  invasion  without  a 

57 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

minute's  discouragement  or  weakness;  and  next  in 
your  words  and  demeanour  we  fuid  the  charming 
gentleness  of  our  province  of  Touraine,  that  garden 
of  France  whose  beauty  seems  to  flower  here 
anew;  and  thirdly,  you  have  the  ardent  soul  and 
the  enthusiasm  of  our  southern  people,  of  the  popu- 
lations which  dwell  upon  the  shores  of  our  warm, 
luminous  Mediterranean  Sea.  You  are  the  whole 
people  of  France  here  gathered  under  her  flag; 
for,  indeed,  whence  else  could  the  admirable 
generosity  arise  which  you  have  lavished  upon  our 
orphans  and  our  wounded?  Whence  the  wonder- 
ful organization  of  the  Red  Cross?  It  has  im- 
provised ambulances  for  mobilization  and  war; 
it  has  given  to  each  unit  forty  thousand  medical 
and  surgical  first-aid  kits;  it  brings  all  aid  to  the 
French  soldiers  fighting  for  liberty.  Whence,  too, 
could  the  magnificent  organization  of  your  bazaar 
have  arisen?  There,  in  a  very  modest  way,  the 
films  representing  the  French  Army  stirred  your 
admiration  of  its  prowess  on  the  battlefield.  You 
were  shown  the  French  Army  rushing  to  attack, 
the  French  Army  defending  its  trenches,  the 
French  Army  ready  to  march  upon  the  enemy,  the 
French  Army  which  you  cheered  with  such  fervour 
that  the  warmth  of  your  acclamations  has  reached 
the  very  heart  of  France.  Whence  else  could  the 
attitude  of  the  Press  arise,  a  Press  as  powerful  as 
it  is  disinterested  and  whose  conception  of  journal- 
ism is  the  true  one,  since  it  educates  the  cities, 

58 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

States  all  facts,  corrects  all  errors.  It  sufficed  it 
should  simply  say  the  truth,  without  courting  or 
flattering  any,  for  France  to  appear  to  you  as  the 
first  of  all  nations.  And  what  other  source  in- 
spired the  admirable  epigraph  which  I  found  on 
the  second  page  of  this  document: 

O  noble  France,  si  fierement  eprise  d'ideal,  la 
cite  de  St.  Louis  te  salue  en  ce  jour  et,  glorieuse 
d'etre  issue  de  toi,  se  prepare  a  te  soutenir 
dans  ta  lutte  heroique  pour  la  justice,  le  droit 
et  la  liberie. 

(Translation  as  follows:  O,  noble  France, 
so  proudly  wed  to  all  ideals,  the  City  of  St. 
Louis  greets  thee  in  this  day,  and  glorying  in 
the  fact  that  she  sprang  from  thee,  is  ready  to 
stand  by  thee  in  thy  heroic  struggle  for  justice, 
right  and  liberty.) 

We  will  bring  back  in  our  hearts  this  wonderful 
greeting  to  France,  just  as  we  will  bring  back  in 
our  hearts  the  motto  which  faces  us  now,  and  which 
recalls  the  words  of  Lafayette,  of  Napoleon,  of 
the  President  of  our  Republic.  Yes,  the  friend- 
ship between  France  and  America  is  eternal;  yes, 
your  admiration  did  not  miss  its  goal;  it  went 
straight  through  the  traditions  of  which  you  have 
preserved  the  memory  to  the  France  of  other  days 
and  the  France  of  to-day  alike.  It  was  St.  Louis 
who  was  the  patron  saint  of  this  city,  and  you  have 
not  forgotten  the  noble  part  he  played  in  French 

59 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

history.  Times  have  changed.  St.  Louis  used  to 
mete  out  justice  under  the  shade  of  an  oak  tree: 
there  he  settled  all  conflicts  between  his  quarrel- 
some subjects;  to-day  our  task  is  to  prepare  a  better 
humanity  for  a  world  in  which  nations  will  mete 
out  justice  to  one  another.  But  that  work  is 
not  for  to-day;  to-day  all  must  join  together 
in  action,  in  a  common  duty,  and  in  a  common 
struggle.  Our  task  is  not  to  mete  out  justice,  but 
to  avenge  it  with  the  sword. 

Why  did  one  of  your  most  important  newspapers 
yesterday  recall  that  St.  Louis  was  the  patron  of 
this  city?  Why  did  it  recall  that  he  led  the 
crusaders  across  the  Mediterranean  Sea?  It  was 
not,  I  am  certain,  in  order  to  recall  an  historical 
fact  which  everybody  knows,  but  in  order  to  con- 
nect the  past  and  the  present,  to  show  that  the 
soul  of  France  was  the  same  throughout  the  ages. 
For  ever  since  France  achieved  her  national  unity, 
she  has  held  in  her  hands,  and  has  upborne  ever 
since,  the  flag  of  justice;  she  has  shed  her  blood 
everywhere,  across  the  Mediterranean  with  St. 
Louis;  on  French  soil  with  the  men  who  stayed 
the  flood  of  the  barbarians;  with  the  armies  of  the 
Revolution,  which,  at  the  battle  of  Valmy,  not 
only  liberated  their  own  territory,  but  saved  the 
liberty  of  other  peoples;  with  Lafayette,  the  first 
Frenchman  who  at  the  close  of  a  decaying  mon- 
archy came  here  to  bring  your  great  Washington 
the  help  of  his  sword  and  to  shed,  side  by  side  with 

60 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

you,  French  blood  on  American  soil.  And  the 
marvellous  reception  accorded  us  here  proves  to 
me  that  our  blood  was  not  shed  in  vain;  indeed, 
blood  poured  out  for  liberty  has  never  been  shed 
in  vain;  always  from  that  blood  springs  an  im- 
mortal seed  of  which  future  generations  gather  the 
harvest.  And  it  is  because  Lafayette  came  here; 
because  he  brought  here  French  aid  under  the 
French  flag  to  the  soldiers  who  fought  for  Ameri- 
can independence,  that  we  find  here  to-day,  after 
one  hundred  and  forty  years,  friendly  faces,  trust- 
ing hearts  and  outstretched  hands.  You  have 
not  forgotten  your  oath  of  gratitude.  Nor  do  we 
forget  our  oath  of  fidelity  to  you. 

But  it  is  also  to  the  France  of  to-day  that  your 
admiration  goes  out.  Ah,  doubtless  when  the  great 
storm  came,  when  the  ground  trembled  under  our 
steps,  although  our  hearts  never  trembled,  fears 
were  entertained  abroad  for  the  safety  of  France. 
France  was  supposed  to  be  a  decaying,  dissolute, 
corrupted  country.  It  was  thought  she  would  never 
be  able  to  play  her  great  part  and  to  uphold  the  flag 
of  France  as  in  past  days.  People  wondered  wheth- 
er she  would  be  able  to  link  the  present  and  the 
past  in  a  firm  bond;  whether  her  people  would  be 
worthy  of  their  ancestors;  whether  they  would  be 
able  to  fight  as  they  had  fought ;  but  the  first  few 
days  of  struggle  dissipated  all  doubts,  and  the  forces 
of  our  historical  tradition  burst  forth  again, manifest 
to  all. 

6i 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANl 

And  the  soldiers  of  France,  who  during  the 
month  of  August,  1914,  underwent  heart-breaking 
hardships,  who  fought  against  an  enemy  five  times 
their  number,  who  were  almost  isolated  in  the 
fields  of  France,  who  were  there  almost  alone,  hold- 
ing at  arm's  length,  so  to  say,  an  invader  whose 
gradual  advance  seemed  irresistible,  why  did  the 
soldiers  of  France  fight  so  magnificently?  In 
sooth  because  they  were  the  soldiers  of  France; 
but  also  because  they  were  the  missionaries  of 
liberty;  and,  if  at  times  they  seemed  to  waver,  it 
was  not  through  weariness  and  exhaustion;  it  was 
because  the  burden  of  the  glory  which  had  de- 
scended on  us  from  out  of  all  the  centuries,  had 
fallen  on  their  shoulders,  and  it  was  their  duty  not 
to  fail  under  its  weight. 

And,  my  American  brothers,  bear  this  well  in 
mind;  our  army  is  a  democratic  army  in  which,  in 
spite  of  the  stripes  on  the  sleeves  of  the  officers, 
all  men  are  equal.  It  is  an  army  of  citizens  who 
willingly  submit  to  discipline  and  pay  willing 
respect  to  their  superiors,  and  who  follow  the 
voice  of  their  conscience  instead  of  yielding  to  the 
voice  of  compulsion.  And  this  is  why  they  fought 
as  they  did.  And  they  were  led  by  Marshal 
Joffre,  standing  here,  whom  you  have  acclaimed. 
But  do  you  realize  his  true  title  to  fame?  No 
doubt,  he  led  the  armies  of  the  Marne  to  victory; 
he  stood  an  immovable  rock  amidst  the  storm. 
All  that  is  true.     But,  a  few  moments  ago  one  of 

62 


ADDRESS   BY  M,  VIVIAN! 

you  brought  to  Marshal  JofTre  a  very  plain  post 
card.  And  his  gesture  showed  how  delicately 
noble  are  the  feelings  that  prompt  your  acts,  and 
to  quote  one  of  your  orators,  how  deep  is  not  only 
the  friendship,  but  the  affection,  the  brotherly 
affection  you  bring  to  France,  the  same  in  your 
hearts  as  in  ours.  And  what  do  1  see  on  this  post 
card  I  hold?  Oh,  may  the  person  that  received 
it,  and  better  still,  that  kept  it,  be  thanked  for  his 
feelings  of  fidelity  toward  France.  What  is  it 
which  this  card  shows  us?  It  is  the  simple  and 
modest  little  house  where  Marshal  Joffre  was  born. 
He  is  a  son  of  the  people.  His  parents  were  poor; 
they  underwent  privations  in  order  to  pay  for  his 
education.  He  made  his  way  to  the  highest  school 
in  France,  the  Polytechnic  School;  he  fought  his 
way  silently,  modestly,  asking  nobody's  help;  he 
rose  to  the  summit  of  the  military  hierarchy.  And, 
do  you  know  what  he  will  do  to-morrow  when  he 
returns  to  his  modest  hearth?  He  will  hang 
against  the  wall  the  sword  of  victory.  As  he  came 
from  the  people,  so  will  he  return  to  the  people. 
He  will  court  no  street  ovations,  but  will  modestly 
wait  until  impartial  history  has  placed  him  forever 
in  the  temple  of  fame,  and  accurately  marked  out 
the  signification  of  the  part  he  played. 

Such  is  the  true  beauty  of  France.  Soldiers 
and  officers,  citizens  all,  have  all  come  from  the 
people;  all  alike  were  prepared  to  fight,  not  only 
for  the  defence  of  our  territory,  but  also  for  the 

63 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

independence  of  all  peoples.     You  fully  realized 
that:  you  have  marvellously  understood  that :  and 
it   is  because  you   understand   that  we  owe  the 
admirable  welcome  which  you  have  accorded  us. 
May  this  welcome  ever  dwell  in  our  hearts;  rest 
assured  that  we  will  bring  the  remembrance  of  it 
back  with  us  to  France.    And  here  too,  the  supreme 
nobility  of  this  gathering  is  that  it  is  one  of  free 
men,  and  that  the  same  ideal  shines  before  all  our 
eyes.     In  other  countries,  in  the  Central  Empires, 
they  go  to  battle  in  order  to  conquer  territory, 
in   order   to   conquer   human   bodies.     Our  only 
desire  is  to  conquer  minds,  to  conquer  souls.     We 
wish  to  penetrate  into  the  life  of  other  nations 
in   order  to  bring  them   the   breath   of   liberty, 
in  order  to  raise  them  higher  and  higher  toward  the 
magnificent  ideals  of  democracy.     Our  desire  is 
that  out  of  this  war  may  come  the  great  lesson, 
that  democracies,   when   they  are  organized  for 
fight,   are   stronger   than   autocracies.     An   illus- 
trious Frenchman,  whose  words,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
are  not  often  enough  quoted  even  in  France,  and 
who  long  ago  visited  America,  De  Tocqueville,  once 
wrote  this  sentence,   which    I   wish    I    could   see 
reproduced  everywhere,  as  it  so  wonderfully  ap- 
plies to  the  drama  of  this  day: 

When  a  democracy  is  struggling  with  an  autocracy, 
if  the  autocracy  is  not  at  once  victorious,  it  is  democracy 
that  is  sure  of  the  ultimate  victory. 

64 


ADDRESS  BY  M.   VIVIANI 

And  why  so?  Because  all  autocracy  can  do  is  to 
gather  human  bodies,  while  democracy  uplifts 
souls  and  can  alone  give  to  the  souls  of  men  the 
nurture  they  need;  in  order  to  uplift  him  in  battle 
the  soldier  must  have  before  his  eyes  the  great 
flame  of  human  idealism.  If  he  gives  his  life 
blood,  it  is  not  only  for  the  soil  of  his  native  land, 
but  for  something  less  material,  less  easy  to  grasp, 
for  a  splendour  all  men  can  see  from  whatever 
point  of  the  earth  they  look.  And  it  is  for  that 
splendour  we  fight,  and  that  is  why  to-morrow  you 
will  be  fighting  by  our  side.  Let  the  sneerers  and 
the  sceptical  jeer.  How  often  has  not  France  been 
sneered  at  by  men  who  professed  to  be  historians! 
How  often  has  she  been  accused  of  having  sacri- 
ficed herself  for  other  peoples;  of  having  reck- 
lessly squandered  her  blood  over  all  the  earth; 
our  soldiers  have  been  accused  of  fighting  all  over 
the  universe  in  the  vain  pursuit  of  visions  and  un- 
attainable dreams.  It  is  a  lie.  Ideals  are  not 
only  the  most  lofty  of  all  aims,  but  also  the  most 
useful.  When  men  who  carry  ideals  with  them 
pass  over  a  land,  they  leave  behind  them  immortal 
seeds  of  which,  after  years  and  years,  future 
generations  reap  the  harvest.  When  a  people 
fights  for  democracy  and  liberty,  its  work  does 
not  end  there;  it  stirs  for  years  and  years  within 
the  souls  of  other  men,  who,  one  after  another,  rise 
in  admiration  for  a  generous  nation.  It  is  thus 
you   have  acted;  it   is  thus  we  have  acted.     In 

65 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

1776,  Washington  founded  American  independ- 
ence; at  that  time  none  could  contemplate  the 
general  interests  of  all  humanity:  at  that  time  in  a 
world  full  of  absolute  monarchies,  there  could  be 
no  question  of  bringing  liberty  to  all.  But  to-day 
your  President,  Mr.  Wilson,  has  fully  realized 
the  mysterious  aspects,  the  deep  meanings  con- 
cealed in  the  progress  of  American  history.  And, 
although  1  am  not  an  American,  although  1  stand 
more  remote  from  you,  more  remote  than  you 
from  the  traditions  of  your  country,  I  am  sure  that 
Washington  himself  would  have  blessed  the  work 
which  has  been  accomplished.  He  had  begun  it 
by  establishing  American  independence.  But 
what  would  the  independence  of  one  people  avail 
if  it  should  fail  to  bring  independence  to  other 
peoples  in  their  turn?  Liberty,  independence, 
ideals  are  not  treasures  which  a  people  should  hide 
as  a  miser  hides  his  hoard.  They  are  destined  to 
be  of  profit  to  all  humanity  and  to  all  peoples 
gathered  together  in  a  common  cause. 

And  this  is  why  you  have  remained  faithful  to 
your  traditions;  this  is  why  you  have  looked  the 
Teutonic  aggression  full  in  the  face,  and  have  re- 
fused to  allow  your  great  national  honour  to  be 
humiliated  under  the  insults  and  the  aggressions 
which  have  been  heaped  upon  you.  But  the  rea- 
son for  the  incomparable  scope  of  your  act,  the 
reason  why  the  message  of  your  illustrious  Presi- 
dent will  take  its  place  among  the  loftiest  historical 

66 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

documents  which  the  world  cherishes,  is  because 
after  having  fully  realized  your  case  against  im- 
perial Germany,  you  declared  at  the  same  time 
your  intention  to  avenge,  not  only  the  dead  of 
America,  but  of  all  other  peoples,  to  defend  the 
sacred  rights  of  humanity  and  to  fight  for  democ- 
racy and  civilization. 

At  last,  we  are  all  united.  The  hour  of  deliver- 
ance has  struck.  Let  democracy,  more  and  more, 
show  its  radiant  face,  and  let  autocracy  sink  into 
the  darkness  of  night.  As  for  us,  we  have  already 
for  three  years  fought  hand  against  hand,  breast 
against  breast.  And  the  Imperial  Eagle  which 
three  years  ago  was  soaring  over  our  provinces, 
trying  to  snatch  them  from  the  hands  of  our  sol- 
diers, has  now  been  compelled  to  descend  from  its 
bloody  heights,  to  graze  the  earth  and  finally 
bury  itself  in  the  trenches. 

Such  is  the  fight  we  have  fought.  Come  to  us 
to  fight  the  fight  for  universal  deliverance;  to 
fight  the  fight  that  democracy  may  prevail. 

But  I  have  already  said  too  much.  I  am  afraid 
I  have  overtaxed  your  patience.  Another  cere- 
mony is  awaiting  us.  We  are  about  to  go  into 
the  streets  to  greet  the  population  of  St.  Louis, 
and  to  express  our  unbounded  gratitude  for  the 
reception  and  the  welcome  that  have  been  ac- 
corded us.  Far  from  our  motherland,  five  thousand 
miles  away  from  Paris,  we  are  stirred  to  a  deeper 
emotion  by  these  cheers  addressed  to  France.     A 

67 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

few  moments  ago  I  said  to  one  of  our  companions, 
that  if  they  love  France  in  France,  if  they  are 
touched  by  her  greatness  and  her  beauty,  they  do 
not  realize  what  it  means  to  love  France  till  they 
are  in  the  midst  of  an  allied  and  beloved  people. 

Let  us  go  then  to  greet  your  fellow  citizens. 
Let  us  go  and  admire  the  proud  demeanour  of  your 
soldiers  standing  erect  as  we  pass  by,  a  solemn 
and  happy  omen.  Let  us  go  and  greet  all  those 
who  are  waiting  for  us,  who  are  stretching  their 
hands  out  to  us.  Be  assured  our  hearts  will  bring 
back  to  France  from  America  sweet  memories 
and  feelings  of  everlasting  fidelity. 


68 


XIII 

AT  SPRINGFIELD,  ILLINOIS 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  LEGISLATURE 
monday,  may  jth 

Gentlemen  and  Ladies: 

BEFORE  coming  here  we  went  to  the  field 
of  silence  to  lay  quick-fading  flowers  on 
the  immortal  tomb  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  bear  to  his  great  shade  the  greeting  of  all 
France. 

And  I  would  have  you  know  that  however  great 
the  distance  between  Springfield  and  France  may 
be,  the  radiance  of  his  noble  face  has  long  been 
known  in  our  native  land.  In  no  democracy,  in 
no  modern  democracy,  did  any  man  offer  the 
world  a  purer  image  than  he  by  his  noble  career. 
That  career  is  far  better  known  to  you  than  to 
me.  You  know  that,  born  of  the  people,  the  son 
of  a  man  who  could  not  read,  after  having  in  his 
youth  suffered  every  sort  of  privation,  he  rose 
through  silent  meditation,  by  study,  to  the  full 
cultivation  of  his  mind  and  the  full  development 
of  his  will.     You  know  that  silently  he  rose  to  the 

69 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

summit  of  civic  honour:  and  that  from  the  summit 
he  had  attained  he  looked  with  untroubled  gaze 
upon  a  great,  an  heroic,  a  tragic  duty:  he  knew  that 
the  minds  of  men  cannot  without  abasement  live 
in  contact  with  injustice.  And  that  is  why  what- 
ever pity  and  compassion  rent  his  soul,  since  the 
equality  of  all  human  beings  must  needs  be  pro- 
claimed, since  the  laws  must  needs  rise  to  the  level 
of  man's  dignity  in  all  places,  he  let  loose  civil 
war  upon  his  native  land — that  civil  war  whose 
heroes  we  have  seen  in  their  old  age  reconciled, 
wherever  we  have  passed.  On  the  morrow  of  his 
gigantic  enterprise  he  died.  He  cannot  be  said 
to  have  been  buried  in  his  triumph:  that  triumph 
will  last  as  long  as  an  American  is  left  to  revere  it. 
and  we  have  come  here  to  salute  his  great  memory 
in  the  name  of  France,  of  the  French  Republic. 
But  permit  me  to  recall  with  just  pride  that  the 
French  of  the  French  Revolution,  of  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1848,  also  proclaimed  the  rights  of  man. 
And  this  shows  that  all  democracies,  in  spite  of 
distance  and  time,  are  one.  And  when  three  years 
ago  Imperial  Germany  in  arms,  without  provoca- 
tion, without  a  shadow  of  excuse,  by  right  of  force 
alone,  rushed  on  France,  tore  up  international 
rights  and  violated  all  human  consciences,  France 
with  her  allies  defended  those  eternal  principles. 
And  for  three  years  she  has  defended  them.  And 
now  America  in  turn,  to  their  defence  rises  at  the 
call  of  her  illustrious  President,  Mr.  Wilson,  who, 

70 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

too,  though  a  man  of  thought  and  a  philosopher, 
has  seen  he  must  become  a  man  of  action  when 
these  eternal  principles  exacted  reparation  and 
vengeance. 

Now,  we  are  all  united  in  this  great  struggle, 
worthy  to  be  ranked  with  the  struggles  of  the 
French  Revolution.  We  all  are  united  to  defend 
right  and  justice.  And  our  French  hearts  thrilled 
with  gratitude  when  we  heard  the  words  of  your 
President,  of  your  Governor.  Yes:  we  feel  as  if 
at  every  step  in  this  blissful  valley  we  found  old 
memories  of  our  beloved  motherland,  as  if  we  had 
never  left  it.  Here  it  was,  as  you  said,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, that  French  missionaries,  the  first  French 
to  discover  the  Mississippi,  came  to  labour,  to  live, 
to  die.  Here  it  was  they  founded  the  first  govern- 
ment that  ruled  over  this  land  which  once  was 
French,  where  the  French  flag  floats  once  more  in 
tragic  hours,  our  flag  which  carries  in  its  folds  all 
our  hopes,  and  calls  to  life  every  form  of  courage 
in  all  our  sons.  Here  we  find  the  shades  and 
memories  of  our  forefathers.  You  can  well 
understand  what  emotions  swell  in  the  heart  of  a 
Frenchman  when  this  tragic  meeting  comes  about 
on  American  soil.  But  is  it  enough  to  evoke  these 
memories  in  a  speech?  Must  we  bury  all  our 
ardent  hopes  in  our  hearts?  I  shall  not  forget, 
but  transmit  to  my  fellow  countrymen  your  desire 
to  pay  back  your  debt  of  gratitude  to  France,  in 
memory   of    Lafayette    who   brought    here   help 

71 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

and  French  soldiers  to  fight  for  American  indepen- 
dence. But  permit  me,  without  any  thought  of 
diminishing  the  effect  of  your  words,  to  defme  their 
full  sense.  It  is  not  to  France  your  debt  lies. 
What  France  did  for  America,  she  did  for  liberty, 
with  no  thought  of  exacting  a  reward  for  it  some 
day.  It  is  to  all  humanity  your  debt  of  gratitude 
should  be  paid:  humanity  and  France  here  are  one. 
Yes,  it  is  because  that  noble  land  has  at  all  times 
in  its  history  held  in  its  hands  the  fate  of  the  world: 
it  is  because  on  our  territory  which  seems  to  have 
been  chosen  by  history  as  the  meeting  place  for  all 
combats  and  immolations,  that  the  fate  of  the 
world  has  so  often  been  decided;  because  our 
children  with  their  hearts,  their  arms,  their  hands, 
their  brains,  are  struggling  even  now  to  keep 
liberty  from  perishing,  to  keep  disaster  away  from 
the  whole  world;  it  is  because  of  all  that  you  have 
risen  in  arms.  And  when  you  rally  to  France, 
you  rally  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  of  right,  of  democ- 
racy. 

Come,  then.  We  will  bear  away  from  your  land 
the  memory  of  these  meetings  of  free  citizens,  and, 
when  we  return  to  our  country,  when  the  free  citi- 
zens of  republican  France  ask  us  what  we  have 
seen,  we  will  answer:  We  have  seen  crowds 
tumultuous  in  their  joy,  enthusiastic  crowds,  but 
they  came  not  forth  to  see  alone,  to  gaze  on  passing 
men:  they  came  as  to  some  great  duty,  to  acclaim 
France  through  us.     We  will  take  back  the  words 

72 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

of  all  your  orators:  we  will  tell  what  you  think, 
what  you  desire,  what  you  hope  for  from  the  fu- 
ture, not  only  a  free  and  delivered  France,  but  a 
regenerate  Europe,  founded  on  right  at  last,  built 
on  the  rock  of  justice. 

And  when  this  great  work  shall  have  been  accom- 
plished, American  brothers,  faithful  to  the  tradi- 
tions of  Washington  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  you 
may  return  in  pious  pilgrimage  to  Mount  Vernon 
and  to  the  graveyard  of  Springfield  and  there  bow 
in  silent  reverence  before  the  two  pure  heroes  of 
your  race.  You  will  most  surely  have  served  their 
memory;  and  rest  assured  that  by  so  doing  you 
will  have  broadened  yet  the  glorious  annals  of  the 
American  Republic. 


73 


XIV 

AT  INDIANAPOLIS,  INDIANA 

TUESDAY,    MAY    8tH 

I  MUST  say  in  my  own  name  and  that  of  my 
companions  that  here  we  have  seen  something 
we  have  seen  nowhere  else.  Everywhere  else 
we  were  expected,  and  could  only  congratulate 
ourselves  on  being  met  by  the  enthusiastic  crowds 
which  have  greeted  France  in  our  persons.  But 
the  number  of  our  engagements  was  so  great  that 
we  had  been  unable  to  reserve  a  visit  to  your  im- 
portant town.  Warned  of  our  arrival  only  this 
morning,  you,  Mr.  Mayor,  and  you,  Mr.  Governor, 
have  managed  to  gather  together  in  the  streets  of 
this  vast  city,  thousands  and  thousands  of  citizens 
who  have  come  to  meet  us  with  outstretched  hands, 
to  greet  France  and  the  French  Republic. 

Such  results  cannot  be  attributed  to  discipline 
alone.  They  come  from  the  love  your  hearts  bear 
to  France,  from  the  patriotic  flame  too,  which 
yet  burns  there,  the  flame  of  gratitude  you  spoke 
of  just  now,  still  so  bright  that  after  one  hundred 
and  forty  years  America  and  France  are  as  close 

74 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

to-day  as  in  the  days  when  l.afayette  came  here 
with  French  soldiers  to  your  aid. 

And  1  do  not  forget  the  chief  reason  for  our 
presence  here,  so  clearly  marked  by  the  spot  on 
which  this  platform  is  raised.  We  are  here  to 
salute  the  glorious  soldiers  who  fell  for  their  native 
land,  for  justice.  In  the  name  of  France,  1  salute 
those  who  at  the  call  of  your  great  President,  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  fell  toassure equal  rightsforall,  justice 
and  right,  all  the  eternal  principles  which  Washing- 
ton and  Lincoln  caused  to  triumph  by  the  creation 
of  American  independence.  They  are  the  very 
principles  at  stake  in  Europe;  it  is  because  Imperial 
Germany  sought  to  trample  under  foot  and  destroy 
European  democracy  as  represented  by  the  France 
of  the  Revolution,  that  Frenchmen  have  struggled 
three  years  and  are  still  struggling.  And  it  is  in 
order  to  save  these  principles  from  perishing  that 
free  America  rises  at  the  voice  of  President  Wilson 
and  that  this  city  before  the  conscription  law  was 
voted,  had  started  voluntary  enlistments  on  so 
large  a  scale. 

You  have  shown,  Mr.  Mayor,  and  you,  free 
citizens  of  this  great  industrial  and  intellectual 
centre,  workers  who  give  freely  the  labour  of  your 
hands  for  the  generations  to  come,  you  have  all 
shown  how  deeply  these  principles  are  engraved 
in  your  hearts. 

You  said,  Mr.  Governor,  and  you  too,  Mr. 
Mayor,  that  the  French  and  American  flags  were 

75 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

about  to  wave  together  in  the  same  cause.  You 
said  their  folds  would  he  mingled  and  become  one. 
I  hail  the  message  and  thank  you  for  saying  these 
grave  words.  Yes,  to-morrow,  all  together,  arms 
in  hand,  we  will  drive  German  autocracy  back  and 
build  up  universal  democracy  throughout  the 
world,  thanks  to  France  and  thanks  to  the  Republic 
of  the  United  States. 


76 


XV 
AT  COLUMBUS,  OHIO 

TUESDAY,    MAY   8tH 

I  SHALL  above  all  remember  the  first  words 
of  your  Mayor,  who  reminded  us  that  our 
train  awaits  us  and  that  our  moments  here 
are  counted.  Nor  do  we  need  long  hours  to  ex- 
press the  sentiments  which  rise  in  all  our  hearts, 
and,  if  I  needed  to  seek  words  of  gratitude  and 
friendly  thanks,  the  speech  made  by  your  Mayor, 
and  before  him  by  the  Governor,  would  have 
furnished  me  with  a  theme  to  develop. 

Your  Governor  said  that  a  common  glory  united 
us  in  the  past  and  that  our  history  was  common. 
He  saluted  the  great  shade  of  Lafayette,  so  ma- 
jestic and  imposing  that  its  shadow  is  cast  over 
not  America,  not  France  alone,  but  over  the  whole 
liberated  world.  And,  too,  alluding  to  the  tremen- 
dous events  of  which  we  are  at  once  the  actors 
and  the  witnesses,  he  said:  "We  do  not  know  what 
the  future  has  in  store  for  us."  I  will  tell  you 
what  the  future  has  in  store  for  us.  We  are  con- 
fronted by  two  futures.     The  immediate  future. 

77 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

citizens,  mark  well,  is  a  future  of  strife  and  struggle. 
Nothing  is  built  up  in  the  history  of  humanity, 
no  liberty  can  rise,  without  strife,  sorrow,  struggle. 
In  strife  and  struggle,  we  Frenchmen  have  lived 
for  three  years:  for  three  years  with  our  allies 
we  have  held  in  check  the  most  formidable  of 
armies,  organized  for  no  other  end  than  to  oppress 
free  peoples.  And  now  free  America  has  risen 
to  rally  to  our  side,  bringing  help,  material  and 
moral. 

The  first  future  is  strife  and  struggle.  There  is 
no  other  means  of  securing  final  victory.  And 
next,  another  future  awaits  us;  when  victory  is 
ours;  when  free  citizens  now  clad  in  uniforms  shall 
have  regained  their  home'ji;  when  after  accomplish- 
ing their  duty  on  the  firing  line,  they  shall  return 
from  the  long,  long  fight  for  liberty  and  their 
native  land.  For  the  work  of  1  beration  is  never 
over.  From  generation  to  generation  we  transmit 
it  to  our  children,  like  a  fiaming  torch  to  illuminate 
the  world.  And  our  labours  can  cease  only  when 
we  shall  have  built  up  full  guarantees  that  no 
such  war  shall  ever  again  repeat  the  crimes  of 
which  we  have  been  the  victims. 

So,  fellow  citizens  listen  well  to  my  words.  Up! 
to  fight  and  struggle  to-day.  Up!  at  the  call  of 
duty,  all,  whatever  form  it  may  take:  to  the  fight, 
however  hard,  however  terrible.  And  to-morrow, 
citizens,  free,  united,  the  Republic  of  France,  allied 
nations   all,   whose   institutions   are   founded   on 

78 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

democracy  and  liberty,  we  will  find  means  to 
break  once  for  all  the  sword  of  militarism  and  to 
prevent  Prussian  militarism  from  ever  again  re- 
turning to  oppress  the  world  and  destroy  the 
liberty  of  the  people. 


79 


XVI 

AT  INDFPRNDENCE  HALL 

PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 

wednesday,  may  qth 

Gentlemen: 

IT  is  not  the  first  time  in  France  or  in  foreign 
lands  that  my  companions  and  I  have  visited 
some  shrine.  Many  a  time  have  we  been  in 
houses,  palaces,  temples,  where  the  history  or  the 
pride  of  the  peoples  we  were  among  found  its 
symbolic  monument.  But  I  am  sure  that  1  express 
our  feelings  when  I  say  that  never,  with  a  deeper, 
simpler  emotion  did  we  penetrate  into  any  palace. 
This  Independence  Hall  is  the  point  from  which 
American  history  has  issued.  Here  it  was  that  the 
American  people  attained  full  consciousnessof  itself 
and  that,  gathered  together,  so  to  say,  in  one  spot, 
it  rose  to  the  dignity  of  a  nation.  Here  it  was  that 
American  independence  was  proclaimed,  and  in  a 
few  moments  1  trust  your  Mayor,  when  we  leave 
this  room,  will  allow  us  to  admire  the  proud 
original  document,  a  facsimile  of  which  we  see 
here.  Here  it  was  that  in  1787  the  first  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Government  and  people  of  the  United 

80 


ADDRESS  BY  M.   VIVIANI 

States  was  promulgated.  Need  I  say  that  to  the 
hearts  of  Frenchmen  and  repubHcans,  to  the  sons  of 
France,  of  the  French  Revolution,  which  by  its 
effects  freed  our  genius  and  gave  it  scope  to  say 
and  to  think  all  things,  your  homage  to  our  land 
profoundly  touched  us?  It  is  to  France,  Mr. 
Mayor,  you  speak  when  you  address  us:  it  is  of 
France  you  spoke  when  you  recalled  our  common 
history  and  said  that  Lafayette  and  his  soldiers 
brought  you  help,  and  that  it  was  well  that  in  the 
tragic  hours  we  are  traversing  we,  too,  should  come 
to  you,  as  the  free  representatives  of  a  free  and 
powerful,  but  attacked  nation,  criminally  attacked, 
and  that  rose  to  defend  its  independence  and  its 
territory  at  once.  And  once  more  the  two  things 
were  one:  by  defending  its  territory  the  French 
nation  defended  the  independence  of  the  world. 
And  it  is  because  you  understood  that,  because 
the  republic  of  this  country  understood,  that  after 
three  years  of  war,  after  having  attempted  to  re- 
main faithful  to  your  peaceful  ideals,  the  American 
people,  torn  away  so  to  say  from  its  dreams  of 
peace  by  the  violent  or  underhand  aggressions  of 
Germany,  was  obliged  to  take  up  arms.  And  it 
will  be  its  glory  to  have  seized  them  not  only  in 
self-defence,  to  avenge  the  insults  heaped  on  it, 
but,  as  your  illustrious  President  said,  in  order 
to  preserve  the  rights  of  humanity  which  for  three 
years  France  has  been  defending. 

1  thank  you,  Mr.  Mayor,   1  thank  you  in  the 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

name  of  the  Government  of  the  Republic,  in  my 
companions'  names.  And  since  you  said  just  now 
that  only  a  few  words  of  welcome  were  to  be 
spoken  here,  and  that  your  real  address  was  made 
to  France,  allow  me,  too,  to  be  brief  and  end 
here.  Allov/  us  to  go  forth  and  salute  the  admir- 
able troops  which  we  saw  on  our  way,  and  which 
gave  France  a  greeting  worthy  of  her.  I  thank 
you,  Mr.  Mayor,  and  to  express  my  gratitude 
to  you  allow  me  to  shake  your  hand  and  in  you  to 
salute  your  whole  nation. 


82 


XVII 

AT  THF{  PHILADELPHIA  LUNCHEON 
wednesday,  may  9th 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

I  WISH  I  could  find  words  which  could  clearly 
and  truthfully  express  the  deep  emotion  my 
fellow  countrymen  and  myself  have  felt  since 
we  arrived  in  this  city,  in  this  city  which  has 
the  best  of  rights  to  be  proud  of  its  achievements, 
whether  looking  back  into  the  past  it  dwells  on  its 
traditions,  or  whether  in  times  nearer  to  us  it 
beholds  the  gigantic  achievements  which,  from  a 
commercial  and  industrial  point  of  view,  it  has 
accomplished.  It  is  here  we  find  the  cradle  of  the 
American  nation  in  the  house  which  we  visited  a 
few  moments  ago;  it  is  here  the  independence  of 
your  nation  was  proclaimed;  here  that  the  first 
constitution  of  the  United  States  was  issued;  here 
that  the  first  Congress  was  held;  here  that  the  first 
President  dwelt;  here  that  in  1824  General  Lafay- 
ette, remembering  the  glorious  days  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  came  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  assembled 
representatives  of  the  United  States. 
We  are  not  long  in  discovering  that  our  expecta- 

83 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

tion  of  finding  a  unanimous  welcome  in  this  great 
city  was  not  vain;  and  the  honour  of  receiving  it 
would  have  come  to  us  sooner  to  delight  and  stir 
us  had  it  not  been  for  an  unfortunate  accident 
which  delayed  us  on  the  road. 

Wherever  we  have  gone,  we  have  felt  your 
hearts  beat  for  us,  we  have  been  escorted  in  tri- 
umph through  the  streets  by  enthusiastic  crowds 
of  men,  women,  and  children.  And  now  in  this 
gigantic  hall,  after  all  the  enthusiasm  we  have 
passed  through,  we  meet  with  the  most  exquisite 
and  delicate  courtesies  which  in  the  splendid 
generosity,  of  your  nature  you  have  lavished  upon 
us.  It  seems  as  if  you  were  resolved  to  bring 
before  our  eyes  dear  memories  of  France,  for  the 
lilies  and  roses  which  embellish  this  hall  are  flowers 
of  our  country  and  in  them  we  behold  the  smiles 
of  our  beloved  motherland.  Behind  us  shine  the 
colours  which  reflect  upon  us  the  glory  of  our 
flag,  and,  more  lovely  still,  above  us,  in  the  gal- 
lery, is  the  wonderful  wreath  of  flowers  formed 
by  the  women  of  this  city  here  gathered  together. 

But  all  of  you  that  are  now  listening  to  me  fully 
realize  that  we  are  not  sitting  here  to-day  at  this 
fraternal  banquet  for  the  sole  purpose  of  exchang- 
ing words  of  friendship  with  you  and  of  tasting  a 
pure  and  absolute  joy,  the  very  taste  of  which,  for 
nearly  three  years,  has  been  denied  us.  We  are 
not  here  only  to  exchange  a  few  words  and  to  toast 
each  other;  we  are  not  here  only  to  grasp  your 

84 


ADDRFSS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

outstretched  hands,  to  enjoy  the  emotions  your 
enthusiasm  raises.  No,  we  are  here  in  order  to 
respond  to  earnest  and  solemn  words  which  in  the 
Hall  of  Independence,  this  morning,  were  spoken 
by  representatives  of  various  creeds,  and  to  v/hich 
your  Mayor  has  just  alluded.  We  are  here  in 
order  to  rise  above  even  the  joy  of  such  moments: 
we  are  here  in  order  earnestly  to  consult  with  one 
another  concerning  the  gigantic  task  the  hands  of 
our  common  enemy  thrust  first  upon  us,  and  next 
upon  you. 

Across  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  four  thousand  miles 
from  here,  lies  a  land  which  is  called  France;  it 
wished  to  live  at  peace  with  the  whole  world;  it 
loved  all  humanity;  it  knew  it  had  done  its  full 
share  in  civilization  by  shedding  its  blood  re- 
peatedly for  the  noble  ideals  that  have  been  car- 
ried all  over  the  universe  with  its  flag.  But  in 
spite  of  its  love  of  peace,  in  spite  of  its  pacific 
attitude,  and,  although  it  had  made  the  greatest 
possible  sacrifices  in  order  not  to  disturb  the  peace 
of  the  world,  Germany  attacked  it  savagely  in  the 
month  of  August,  19 14,  and  it  had  to  face  the  ag- 
gression alone,  it  was  forced  to  rise  against  the 
barbarians  whose  hordes  had  flooded  its  land. 

What  are  we  fighting  for?  We  are  fighting  for 
our  territories;  we  are  fighting  in  order  that  the 
accumulated  achievements  of  our  ancestors  should 
not  be  sullied  by  the  invader;  we  are  fighting  to 
remain  worthy  of  our  ancestors,  and  because  it  is 

85 


ADDRESS   BY  M.   VIVIANI 

impossible  that  vvhen  the  motherland  is  assaulted, 
its  sons  should  not  rise  to  hurl  back  the  enemy  who 
is  defiling  its  soil. 

But  this  is  only  the  material  side  of  things:  it  is 
only  the  material  side  of  history.  You  have  fully 
realized  the  deep  meaning  of  the  war  that  has  been 
thrust  upon  us.  As  our  ancestors  did  in  the  past, 
we  in  our  turn  fight  for  the  very  stones  of  our 
roads:  we  fight  for  our  hearths:  we  fight  for  the 
industrial  and  commercial  wealth  which  the  hands 
of  generations  have  piled  up.  But  better  still,  we 
fight  for  the  very  idea  of  France:  we  fight  for 
humanity:  we  fight  for  liberty  and  for  democracy. 
And  in  the  midst  of  innumerable  sufferings  which 
are  heaped  upon  our  land:  in  the  midst  of  our  sor- 
rows and  of  the  anxiety  which,  in  spite  of  our  own 
fortitude,  often  tear  our  hearts,  our  present  French 
generation  is  proud,  proud  of  the  testimony  which 
it  renders  itself,  and  which  friendly  and  allied 
countries  like  America  render  us.  And  as  regards 
this  testimony  which  comes  to  us  from  America, 
allow  me  to  quote  the  famous  saying  that  some 
contemporaries  already  judge  as  posterity  will 
judge  and  say: 

"To  us  America  is  a  living  posterity  and  speaks 
for  it." 

Allow  me  to  express  the  pride  which  fills  our 
souls  when  we  feel  that  we  have  not  sunk  below 
the  level  of  our  great  ancestors;  like  them,  we  fight 
for  the  defence  of  the  fatherland:  we  fight  for  the 

86 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

defence  of  French  ideas,  for  the  defence  of  the 
French  Revolution.  IJke  them  at  great  cost 
perhaps,  we  defend  all  that  is  sacred  and  pure  in 
humanity,  those  ideals  whose  extinction  would 
deprive  our  lives  of  the  very  ends  and  joys  and 
meaning  of  life.  We  have  risen  in  fight  and  we 
shall  endure,  feeling  that  future  generations  will 
turn  gratefully,  not  to  the  memory  of  a  particular 
man,  but  to  that  of  the  whole  present  generation 
which  has  immolated  itself,  which  has  shed  its 
blood  in  sacrifice,  in  order  that  France  might  not 
succumb  and  that  by  saving  France  a  moral  disas- 
ter might  be  spared  all  humanity. 

As  for  you,  when  the  call  of  your  illustrious 
President  came  you  at  once  looked  into  the  very 
heart  of  things:  you  realized  the  gravity,  the  wide- 
reaching  consequences  of  the  questions  at  stake: 
you  realized  that  our  cause  was  just  and  true,  and 
that,  if  so  many  allied  nations  have  rallied  round 
France,  if  wonderful  England  has  called  from  her 
soil  millions  of  soldiers,  if  Russia,  if  Italy  came  to 
our  side,  it  was  because  our  cause  was  a  just  one 
and  worthy  to  be  defended.  And  there  is  no  per- 
son in  the  world  that  has  ever  expressed  the  justice 
and  the  sanctity  of  this  cause  in  nobler  words  than 
Mr.  Wilson  in  his  incomparable  message,  which 
we  French  people  hold  so  dear  to  our  hearts  that 
it  has  been  read  in  all  our  schools,  so  that  our 
children  and  the  children  of  our  soldiers  may  know 
its  beauty  and  nurture  their  souls  with  the  in 

87 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

spiring  philosophy  it  contains.  No  one  m  more 
forcible  words  has  defined  the  deeper  meaning  of 
this  war.  It  is  not  for  territory,  for  moral  or 
material  advantages,  in  a  spirit  of  conquest  or 
aggression,  that  we  are  fighting,  not  because  we  are 
a  people  of  prey ;  no,  but  because  we  are  threatened 
by  a  nation  of  prey  because,  one  and  all,  we  are 
defending  liberty.  A  few  moments  ago  your  Mayor 
was  speaking  of  the  future.  He  said:  "We  are 
one  in  heart  and  soul."  And  he  greeted  the  flags 
under  which,  different  in  formation  but  one  in 
soul,  your  soldiers  and  ours  advance  toward  that 
future.  It  is  not  true  that  the  allied  nations 
march  under  different  flags.  The  French  flag,  the 
American,  the  Russian,  the  English,  the  Italian, 
are  but  the  flags  of  nations.  Their  real  flag  is  the 
flag  of  humanity,  the  flag  which  waves  so  high  that 
it  can  be  seen  by  all  men  in  the  world:  a  flag  that 
shines  so  radiant  that  all  men  on  earth  long  to  see 
the  promises  of  liberty  of  equality  and  justice 
which  its  folds  contain  and  announce,  shower  down 
on  all  the  earth. 

It  is  under  this  flag,  the  flag  of  humanity,  that 
your  children  will  march  to  battle.  I  greet  their 
labours  of  liberation  in  advance ;  in  advance  I  salute 
their  courage,  as  with  all  the  fervour  of  piety  1 
bow  my  head  before  all  the  soldiers  of  liberty  who 
have  resisted  the  on-sweeping  avalanche  and  have 
fallen  in  the  holiest  of  causes. 

And  now  we  have  exchanged  those  words  that 
88 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

rise  to  the  lips  from  the  heart,  now  that  I  have  tried 
to  express  something  of  the  enthusiasm  that  burns 
in  mine,  allow  me  to  finish  this  too-short  speech 
in  which,  in  order  to  try  and  win  your  hearts,  I 
have  put  my  whole  soul,  and  ask  you  to  drink  to 
the  health  of  the  first  magistrate  of  the  Republic 
of  the  United  States,  your  illustrious  President, 
Wood  row  Wilson. 


89 


XVIII 

AT  THE  CITY  HALL,  NEW  YORK  CITY 
wednesday,  may  qth 

Gentlemen: 

AT   last,   then,   we   have    reached    this   great 

/\  city  whose  splendours  had  already  been 
-L  JL  described  to  us  and  irresistibly  attracted 
us.  In  my  own  name,  and  in  the  name  of  my 
fellow  countrymen,  I  am  compelled  to  admit  that 
in  contrast  with  what  usually  happens  in  life,  the 
reality  far  exceeds  our  expectations. 

An  eminent  statesman,  Mr.  Choate,  formerly 
your  Ambassador  in  foreign  lands,  whose  presence 
I  am  happy  to  greet  here,  has  just  said  that  he 
could  find  no  proper  language  to  express  what 
America  owes  to  France.  If  you,  who  have  ex- 
tended so  marvellous  a  welcome  to  us,  can  find 
no  fit  words,  how  can  I,  who  with  my  fellow  coun- 
trymen have  received  this  welcome,  ever  hope  to 
adequately  express  our  gratitude  for  the  magnifi- 
cent reception  we  have  met? 

We  are  at  last  arrived  in  this  City  Hall  where 
Mayor  Mitchel  has  received  us  with  such  charming 

90 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

courtesy,  where  in  the  name  of  the  great  city 
which  he  governs,  he  has  been  kind  enough  to  ad- 
dress to  us  words,  as  grave  as  they  were  gracious; 
they  touched  at  once  our  hearts  and  our  minds. 
I  thank  him  for  having  introduced  us  to  the  govern- 
ing body  of  this  city  to  which  I  bow,  to  the  senior 
General,  to  the  General  commanding  the  troops 
of  the  east,  to  the  Admiral  commanding  the  fleet 
at  New  York.  And  not  without  intention  have 
you  gathered  in  this  City  Hall,  not  only  citizens 
and  the  members  of  the  municipality,  but  also 
soldiers,  army  and  navy  commanders;  thus  you 
show  the  hour  has  come  not  for  thought  alone, 
but  for  action. 

The  efficiency  of  your  magnificent  administra- 
tion was  known  to  us  even  before  we  thought  of 
visiting  this  wonderful  city.  We  knew  the  great- 
ness of  the  task  that  lies  before  a  municipality 
which  governs  seven  millions  of  men,  that  is  to 
say,  a  population  some  kingdoms  in  Europe  do  not 
possess:  we  knew  with  what  vigilance  it  adminis- 
teps  formidable  appropriations:  we  knew  what  it 
has  done  for  the  workers  of  this  city;  how  it  has 
organized  this  vast  harbour  of  which  it  is  so  justly 
proud,  from  which,  before  the  war,  ships  bearing 
the  tricolour  left,  and  from  which  others  will  leave 
under  the  same  flag,  plowing  the  waves  in  silent 
majesty.  Yes,  we  were  not  ignorant  of  all  you 
have  done,  and,  when  we  reached  your  shores,  we 
gazed  with  admiration  at  the  Statue  of  Liberty 

91 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

which  we  had  so  often  before  seen  depicted  and 
which  now  sheds  its  light  over  the  whoie  world. 

Be  thanked,  Mr.  Mayor,  and  you  also,  Mr. 
Choate,  for  the  words  you  have  said:  it  is  not  us 
whom  you  welcome:  it  is  not  to  us  your  words 
were  addressed.  Through  our  persons  they  go 
to  France,  and  we  need  not  say  that  we  shall  faith- 
fully repeat  them,  not  only  because  they  are  gra- 
cious words  dictated  by  international  courtesy, 
but  because  they  are  strong  and  earnest  words, 
clear-cut  and  durable  as  medals,  if  I  may  so  say. 
Allow  me  to  recall  a  few.  You  were  right  when 
you  reminded  me  of  the  wonderful  spectacle  which 
France  has  given  to  the  world  for  nearly  three 
years:  you  were  right  when  you  said  that  the  blood 
of  France  is  being  poured  out  like  water.  Yes, 
from  all  our  wounds,  from  the  open  wounds  of  our 
soldiers  has  flowed  the  pure  red  blood  of  France. 
It  has  flooded  our  plains,  from  the  very  spots 
where  formerly  our  farmers  and  our  peasants  and 
labourers  were  living  in  peace.  And  why  was 
peace  thus  broken?  And  why  does  the  invader 
so  pollute  our  soil?  We  were  a  peace-loving  na- 
tion, as  peace-loving  as  yourselves;  but  you  have 
seen  for  yourselves  whether  it  is  easy  to  remain 
faithful  to  one's  dreams  of  universal  peace.  You 
cherished  such  dreams;  you  were  a  great  people 
that  had  only  one  thought,  humanity  and  justice; 
we  were  a  free  democracy,  and  we  only  had  one 
thought,    universal    right    and    humanity.     But 

92 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

Germany  brutally  attacked  us,  and  we  were  com- 
pelled to  rise  in  arms.  You  have  paid  full  homage 
to  what  France  did  then.  At  the  imperious  call 
of  duty,  she  fights:  we  fight  for  our  territory,  for 
our  wealth,  for  our  historical  traditions,  in  order 
that  the  invader  may  not  advance  a  single  step 
farther  on  our  sacred  soil.  Ah,  yes!  You 
recognize  through  the  darkness  of  the  storm  the 
sacred  radiance  of  her  rights.  France  fights  for 
the  world:  for  justice:  for  humanity  as  a  whole. 
And  it  is  because  she  fights  for  these  things  that 
at  last  the  American  people  has  risen  to  bring  her 
moral  and  material  aid. 

You  said  just  now  that  sympathy  was  not 
enough.  We  are  aware  of  the  sympathy  with 
which  for  one  hundred  forty  years  you  have 
cheered  the  heart  of  France.  We  know  that  you 
were  neither  forgetful  nor  ungrateful.  And  just 
as  on  your  public  squares  you  have  erected  statues 
of  Lafayette,  you  carry  his  memory  in  your  hearts: 
we  knew  that  a  great  free  people,  proud  of  its 
traditions  and  of  its  history,  venerated  the  memory 
of  a  foreign  general  who  in  the  dark  hours  before 
the  birth  of  its  independence,  brought  to  it  the 
courage  of  the  sons  of  France  and  his  genius. 
Since  the  beginning  of  the  war  we  have  received 
proofs  of  this  sympathy  in  innumerable  and  gener- 
ous forms:  we  have  received  a  proof  of  your 
brotherly  affection  in  all  the  charitable  gifts 
which  our  orphans  and  our  wounded  so  often  have 

93 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

held  in  their  hands.  But  sympathy  was  too  little. 
Now  you  look  your  future  sorrows  and  your  duty 
full  in  the  face. 

1  can  understand  you  should  have  hesitated 
before  so  terrible  a  duty,  for  war  with  its  dangers 
and  its  horrors,  its  moaning  widows,  its  premature 
deaths,  its  cradles,  where  only  hope  should  dwell, 
not  the  woe  and  the  calamity  which  have  fallen 
on  them:  war  is  a  terrible  thing.  Yes.  But  could 
there  be  anything  more  terrible  for  a  people  than 
to  live  without  honour  or  independence?  Just 
as  you  refused  to  allow  your  national  honour  to  be 
humiliated  by  the  insolent  demands  and  sugges- 
tions of  Germany,  you  refused  to  submit  to  break 
your  plighted  word.  And  when  looking  back 
over  the  events  of  the  last  two  years,  you  saw 
how  the  small  nations  were  oppressed  and  how 
great  peoples  like  Russia,  England,  France,  Italy, 
rushed  to  the  defense  of  the  rights  of  mankind,  i-n 
order  to  save  amid  the  destruction  their  national 
honour,  you  felt  your  conscience  outraged;  nay, 
it  was  already  outraged  when  German  aggression 
struck  at  your  brothers.  And  it  was  even  then 
an  easy  matter  to  those  who  knew  the  evolution 
of  the  American  soul  to  foresee  what  would  hap- 
pen, and  what  has  actually  happened  since.  All 
America  has  risen  in  arms.  We  have  just  visited 
the  Middle  West:  we  have  just  visited  cities  whose 
wild  enthusiasm  was  manifested  in  the  joyous 
acclamations  of  their  men,  women  and  children. 

94 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

We  found  everywhere,  even  in  these  very  places 
where  we  had  been  told  it  would  be  lacking,  the 
virile  resolution  of  a  whole  people  acclaiming  our 
passage.  And  we  find  it  here  again  in  these  streets 
of  New  York,  in  this  great  city  where  millions  of 
men  surge  like  the  waves  of  the  sea. 

This,  then,  is  what  was  in  store  for  us  in  this  city. 
We  have  received  a  brotherly  welcome  which  has 
gone  deep  into  our  hearts.  You  may  rest  assured 
that  we  shall  not  forget  it;  and  from  the  height  on 
which  I  stand,  across  the  distance  which  separates 
us  from  France,  allow  me  to  transmit  to  the  coun- 
try whose  sons  we  are,  the  full  honour  of  the  wel- 
come which  we  have  met  with.  It  alone  deserves 
it.  It  has  withstood  everything:  it  has  accepted 
everything,  except  shame,  except  humiliation;  it 
has  submitted  to  everything,  except  to  kneel  be- 
fore an  enemy  who  thought  it  would  be  an  easy 
matter  to  vanquish  it.  It  has  fought  for  the 
rights  of  men  and  for  justice.  And  it  is  not  only 
the  army  of  France,  but  the  whole  people  of  France, 
which  is  up  in  arms  to  fulfill  this  duty. 

We  shall  go  back  to  our  country  bringing  with 
us  a  moral  and  material  help  which  will  exalt 
our  countrymen's  souls  which  will  make  their 
wills  more  resolute  still  and  their  hearts  beat 
with  a  stronger  throb.  We  shall  bring  back  to 
our  country  the  unforgettable  memory  of  these 
wonderful  moments.  We  shall  tell  our  fellow- 
citizens  that  the  sacred  name  of  France  rang  from 

95 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

millions  and  millions  of  mouths,  that  it  is  impossi- 
ble for  them  to  realize  the  love,  the  veneration 
and  respect  you  bear  to  the  great  moral  entity 
which  is  called  France.     We  shall  tell  it  all. 

And  finally  let  me  say,  though  I  can  hardly 
find  words  to  express  what  I  feel,  and  moreover^ 
after  so  many  speeches,  I  have  almost  reached  the 
limits  of  human  endurance,  that  we  are  all  one  in 
France,  that  a  sacred  unity  prevails  everywhere, 
and  that  there  are  no  longer  any  distinctions  of 
classes,  religions,  or  opinions.  All  together,  we 
fight  under  the  same  flag,  ready  to  perish  if  neces- 
sary, but  not  before  saving  France.  To  hail  this 
unity  of  the  French  people,  I  can  do  no  better 
than  stand  here  side  by  side  as  I  do  with  the  repre- 
sentatives of  our  government  and  people  and  army. 
It  is  with  joy  I  thank  the  French  Army,  in  this 
friendly  land  so  closely  linked  with  France,  for  its 
heroic  achievements.  Our  army  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war  faltered  under  the  most  terrific  onset 
ever  met  by  men;  but  it  rallied,  and  those  young 
boys  of  twenty,  with  shining  eyes,  went  out  to 
fight  and  die  for  their  motherland  and  for  man- 
kind. 

And  who  was  it  that  led  them?  Who  was  it 
that  with  steady  eye  and  cool  head  organized  our 
resistance?  I  need  not  speak  his  name;  it  is 
enough  to  mention  the  Marne.  At  the  same  time, 
our  sailors,  like  Admiral  De  Grasse,  Rochambeau's 
companions,  who,  as  you  are  aware,  rendered  the 
cause  of  independence,  in  the  name  of  France, 

96 


ADDRHSS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

priceless  services;  our  vigilant  sailors  keen,  cour- 
ageous, kept  watch  day  and  night  on  their  ships; 
they  fought  in  the  Adriatic  under  Admiral  Choche- 
prat,  who  stands  here  on  my  left,  while  the  marines 
were  fighting  in  the  trenches  at  Ypres. 

For  our  army  is  the  whole  nation ;  it  is  democracy 
up  in  arms,  defending  its  honour  and  its  independ- 
ence. Our  democracy,  you  recognize,  has  given 
the  world  a  wonderful  example;  it  did  not  wait  for 
the  hour  of  peril;  it  organized  itself  in  advance; 
it  had  an  army  commanded  by  competent  officers. 
And  that  is  why  it  was  able  to  stand  firm;  that 
is  why  1  now  hear  the  people  in  the  streets  exclaim 
when  they  see  such  of  my  companions  as  wear  a 
uniform:  "There  are  the  men  who  saved  the 
world."  Yes,  the  soldiers  of  the  Marne  saved  the 
world.  But  had  it  not  been  for  conscription,  had 
it  not  been  that  everybody  in  France  answered  the 
call  to  arms,  what  would  have  become  of  our 
country  in  spite  of  its  spirit,  its  valour,  its  courage? 

Such,  citizens  who  are  listening  to  me,  is  the  great 
and  serious  lesson  of  the  war.  1  have  already  said, 
but  1  shall  repeat  monotonously  until  all  under- 
stand, that,  so  long  as  there  is  in  the  world  a  quar- 
relsome Germany,  a  group  of  men  of  prey,  an 
unscrupulous  and  treacherous  aggressor,  there  can 
be  no  safety  for  democracies.  Would  they  pre- 
serve the  treasure  they  guard  for  all  humanity? 
Let  them  awake,  let  them  rise,  let  them  arm,  with 
the  solemn  purpose  never  to  wield  the  sword  in  any 
service  but  that  of  right. 

97 


XIX 

M    THE  MERCHANTS'  ASSOCIATION 
LUNCHEON,  NEW  YORK  CI  lY 

THURSDAY,  MAY    lOTH 

Gentlemen: 

ON  opening  his  admirable  speech,  Mr.  Beck, 
in  words  which  carry  all  the  sacred  emo- 
tion the  name  of  France  stirs  in  him,  said 
that  we  were  living  thrilling  hours  and  living  them 
together.  And  it  is  because  these  hours  are  so 
thrilling  that  I  asked  myself  how  I  could  find, 
though  accustomed  to  popular  manifestations  and 
meetings  such  as  this,  fit  words  to  express  in  the 
name  of  France  the  infinite  gratitude  we  owe  the 
people  of  New  York  since  we  had  the  honour  of 
arriving  in  this  admirable  city. 

In  his  enumeration  of  the  various  greetings  we 
have  met,  the  Mayor  spoke  of  the  innumerable  leg- 
ions of  men  who  had  acclaimed  us,  or  rather,  France, 
and  in  their  acclamations  brought  to  us  the  cry  of 
their  hopes,  I  should  say,  of  their  certainties.  And 
next  in  the  City  Hall  another  greeting  met  us: 
need  I  say  with  what  emotion  we  received  it? 
And  now  to-day  in  this  vast  hall,  too  narrow  to 

98 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

contain,  I  am  told,  all  the  members  of  the  Associa- 
tion, you  appear  almost  countless  in  my  eyes, 
silent  and  seated  when  you  listen,  erect  and  thun- 
dering in  applause  when  the  name  of  France  rings 
out.  You  are  business  men,  the  men  toward 
whom  France  turned  first  and  treated  with  when 
war  broke  out,  a  war  no  human  brain  could  have 
foreseen.  For  till  then  all  wars  had  seen  armies 
with  their  provisions  and  ammunition  fight  a  few 
months:  no  more.  But  we  have  seen  a  war  whose 
weeks  are  months,  whose  months  are  years :  we  have 
seen  hurricanes  of  steel  such  as  no  eye  had  even  con- 
templated before.  And  we  needs  had  to  turn  to 
you,  business  men,  for  we  needed  your  credit,  your 
labour,  your  shells,  your  munitions,  your  steel, 
your  rails.  And  you  gave  all  we  asked  for.  Be 
thanked  for  your  generous  help,  loyally  and 
strenuously  given.  Thanks  to  you  the  French 
Army  has  been  fed  in  ammunition.  And  be 
satisfied  that  if  you  on  your  side  have  brought  all 
your  skill,  all  your  soul,  I  might  say,  to  your  untir- 
ing work,  the  French  soldiers  have  made  a  worthy 
and  efficient  use  of  the  tools  you  gave  them:  you 
have  long  known  that;  I  teach  you  no  new  thing 
to-day  when  I  say  so.  It  is  no  reason,  just  be- 
cause you  are  engaged  in  vast  enterprises  and 
gigantic  business  undertakings,  why  your  hearts 
and  minds  should  sink  to  mere  industrial  commer- 
cialism: on  the  contrary,  you  have  kept  to  your 
old  traditions,  strong  in  your  hearts,  of  admira- 

99 


ADDRUSS   HY  M.  VIVIANI 

tioii  for  efforts  in  the  general  interests  of  human- 
ity, of  the  idealism  represented  by  your  flag;  they 
dominate  your  business  activities:  you  feel  that 
in  your  business  work  considerations  of  humanity 
are  never  absent,  since  you  are  in  constant  touch 
with  men  of  every  sort,  in  sight  of  the  wide  hori- 
zons your  hearts  and  energies  contemplate  con- 
tinually :  and  so,  when  your  day's  work  is  over,  you 
give  yourselves  up  with  admirable  devotion  to  the 
holy  labours  which  give  a  dignity  to  life  and  bring 
admiration  on  man's  efforts. 

And  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  allow  a  French- 
man to  take  advantage  of  this  occasion  of  speak- 
ing to  a  friendly  country  to  dissipate  the  slanders 
that  have  sullied  our  name.  Yes,  France  before 
the  war  was  represented  as  a  nation  of  rhetoricians 
and  declaimers,  a  land  of  politicians.  People  re- 
sorted to  Paris  as  to  a  paradise,  to  enjoy  them- 
selves. And  they  were  led  to  think  that  our  great 
France,  which  contains  eleven  million  of  workmen, 
seven  million  of  whom  are  peasants,  was  not  a  land 
of  workers  devoted  to  its  daily  labours.  German 
slanders  had  effaced,  so  to  say,  the  true  glory  of 
France,  which  is  its  uncompromising  love  of  work, 
its  strenuous  labour,  thrift,  all  the  great  virtues  our 
ancestors  have  handed  down  to  us.  Now  in  this 
war  which  suddenly  took  on  an  industrial  aspect, 
not  only  the  courage  of  our  sons,  but  the 
efficiency  of  our  officers,  our  captains  of  industry 
who  cannot  be  separated  from  the  rest  of  France, 

100 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANl 

sufficed  to  meet  the  liemendous  problems  that 
destiny  forced  upon  us:  all  arose,  our  industrial 
leaders,  our  engineers,  all  our  workers,  and  showed 
an  ingeniousness,  all  the  clarity  of  the  French  mind, 
its  adaptability  to  new  conditions,  its  powers  of 
assimilating  new  ideas:  French  genius  revealed 
itself.  And  it  is,  thanks  to  the  cooperation  of 
French  industry  and  American  help,  that  we  were 
enabled  to  turn  out  millions  of  shells,  of  tons  of 
steel,  of  rails,  all  the  indispensable  things  that 
economize  on  the  field  of  battle  the  blood  of  our 
children,  and  hurl  into  the  German  trenches  our 
shot  and  shell  before  French  heroism  bounds  forth 
to  conquer  them. 

Just  now  your  illustrious  statesman,  Mr.  Choate, 
to  whom  you  rightly  addressed  your  acclamations, 
in  which  we  join,  in  virile  words,  in  a  ringing  voice 
that  made  one  doubt  whether  he  possibly  could 
bear  upon  his  shoulders  the  weight  of  more  than 
three  quarters  of  a  century,  Mr.  Choate  said  that 
the  American  Flag  and  the  French  Flag  could 
indeed  mingle  their  folds,  and  your  president 
expressed  the  same  idea  when  he  said  the  same 
wind  would  marry  in  a  common  ideal  the  Star 
Spangled  Banner  and  ours. 

But  that  prediction  is  already  realized  and  other 
things  will  follow.  The  newspapers  this  morning 
tell  us  that  yesterday  in  Paris  a  popular  ceremony, 
to  which  Paris  gave  up  all  its  soul  enthusiastically, 
marshalled  the  American  ambulances  under  the 


lOl 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

American  Flag  along  all  the  great  streets  of  our 
capital,  acclaimed,  need  I  say,  by  the  heart  of 
France  represented  by  Paris. 

And  I  say  other  things  will  follow.  1 1  is  not  only 
in  the  streets  of  the  capital,  joyous  in  spite  of  its 
sorrows,  at  the  thought  that  Free  America  rallies 
at  last  to  its  side,  it  is  not  only  in  the  streets  of 
New  York  and  Paris  that  the  French  and  American 
Flags  shall  float:  there  they  float  among  virile 
rejoicings,  in  civil  joy:  they  attract  the  eyes  of  all 
our  citizens.  But  there  they  are  merely  a  promise 
and  a  symbol.  Further  on,  beyond  Paris,  on  the 
firing  line  where  the  hail  of  German  shells  falls 
incessantly,  in  the  trenches  where  the  English  and 
French  soldiers  have  exceeded  in  their  heroism 
the  bounds  of  human  nobility,  over  these  trenches 
the  American  Flag  which  is  already  unfurled  over 
the  Lafayette  Air  Squadron,  side  by  side  with  the 
English  and  French  Flags,  will  shortly  float.  Ah, 
when  it  returns,  it  will  not  be  like  the  one  which 
proudly  gleams  before  our  eyes.  No;  I  warn  you 
it  will  be  torn  to  rags;  it  will  bear  in  its  folds  not 
only  the  stars,  but  the  rents  that  speak  of  the 
heroism  of  your  children. 

And  when  you  come,  it  will  be,  as  Mr.  Beck  said 
in  magnificent  words  which  are  those  of  a  writer 
and  a  philosopher  at  once,  irresistibly  carried  to 
us  by  the  deep  reasons  he  analyzed.  Of  your 
entry  into  the  war  we  never  doubted,  even  in  the 
hours  when  prophets  of  misfortune  and  doubters 

102 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VlVIANI 

told  US  America  was  neutral  for  all  time,  and 
exacted  peace  at  all  costs.  That  we  never  be- 
lieved. We  never  believed  the  slanders  that 
sought  to  cast  a  slur  on  your  good  name.  Why 
you  have  come  into  this  war  Mr.  Beck  has  said, 
and  1  prefer  to  leave  to  an  American  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  assertions  made.  It  was  not  on  ac- 
count of  the  submarines  which  hampered  your 
trade,  it  was  not,  even  though  that  reason  was 
enough,  to  avenge  the  deaths  of  the  Lusitania 
atrocity,  to  avenge  the  innocent  American  men, 
women  and  children  hurled  into  the  icy  waters, 
and  who  are  lost  to  you  forever.  It  is  your  honour, 
the  honour  of  a  free  people,  that  your  national 
grievances  were  not  alone  in  your  mouths,  but  the 
grievances  of  all  humanity.  It  is  not  for  American 
rights  alone,  but  for  human  rights,  for  liberty, 
for  democracy  that  you  rose:  it  was  to  defend  those 
immortal  principles.  And  Mr.  Choate  may  be 
free  from  all  anxiety.  We  are  all  agreed,  if  not  in 
speech,  in  heart.  He  said:  "Hurry  up!  Why 
lose  time?"  We  don't  say  that.  We  know  what 
war  is,  for  we  have  felt  its  full  weight.  We  know 
how  strenuous  must  be  its  preparation  and  that 
no  detail  can  be  neglected.  And  he  said  further: 
"We  can  never  accept  Germany's  peace  condi- 
tions." No :  we  can  never  accept  Germany's  peace 
conditions.  Conditions  of  peace  from  a  country 
which  has  come  to  consider  all  peoples  as  its  serfs, 
which  has  imagined   it  could  trample  under  its 

103 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

heavy  foot  the  heart,  conscience  and  soul  of  all 
humanity;  conditions  of  peace  from  such  a  source 
cannot  be  accepted  because  they  would  humiliate 
the  reason  and  conscience  of  humanity.  We  can 
have  no  peace  until  Alsace  and  Lorraine  have  been 
restored  to  us,  since  they  are  our  property.  And 
we  are  not  selfishly  fighting  to  gain  a  victory  in 
this  war,  which  we  did  not  seek,  to  realize  national 
aims.  France  has  not,  1  conceive,  so  far  led  the 
world  to  look  upon  her  as  selfish.  Ours  is  a  noble 
race:  it  deserves  your  acclamations,  and  you  are 
right  in  venerating  it:  your  respect  is  due:  for — 
allow  a  Frenchman  to  say  so  without  accusing  him 
of  excess  of  vanity — there  is  no  freer  people,  nor 
one  that  bears  in  its  heart  a  more  sacred  emotion. 
It  is  not  a  selfish  people:  it  has  cast  the  children 
of  France  over  all  the  earth,  wherever  there  was 
liberty  to  defend:  it  has  freed  Europe  by  spreading 
the  ideas  of  the  French  Revolution:  it  has  sent  the 
French  Flag  to  shine  on  every  battlefield  on  which 
men  were  fighting  for  humanity,  and  our  desire, 
one  with  that  of  our  Allies,  is  to  establish  guarantees 
against  any  possible  repetition  of  such  crimes. 

You  are  business  men:  you  respect  your  con- 
tracts, and  you  know  that  when  any  dispute  arises 
justice  must  be  sought  from  arbitration,  from 
judges,  a  sovereign  court,  not  from  brute  violence. 
Well,  what  prevails  among  private  persons,  among 
civilized  citizens,  why  should  the  same  thing  not 
exist  between  nations?    When  war  broke  out  that 

104 


ADDRESS  BY  M.   VIVIANI 

is  what   we   proposed.     We  asked   to  carry   the 
quarrel    before   the    Hague   Court;   we   asked   for 
inquiries  to  be  conducted,  so  as  to  bring  to  Hght 
the  true  state  of  things.     We  refused  to  enter  this 
war  until  all  appeals  to  justice  and  reason    had 
been  exhausted.     The   brutality  of  our  enemies 
turned  our  efforts  to  naught.     Ah,  as  some  one 
said  just  now,  they  thought  their  hour  had  struck. 
Why  discuss  when  one  is  the  master?     Why  sub- 
mit to  arbitration  when  one  is  a  despot?     Of  what 
avail  are  reason  and  conscience  when  one's  arm 
wields  a  ponderous  sword  and   holds  a  torch  to 
kindle  fire  in  villages  and  towns?    Of  what  avail  are 
all  these  things,  heart,  reason,  conscience?   They 
count  for  naught:  force,  force  alone  reigns.     Yes: 
but  we  too  had  force:  we  seized  in  our  hands  the 
glorious  sword  of  France.     And  alone,  or  almost 
alone  in  those  first  days  of  war,  we  rallied,  we  recon- 
quered our  invaded  lands,  and  gave  all  the  Allies 
of  France  the  time  to  grow  conscious  of  the  great- 
ness of  this  drama,  to  rise  to  arms,  to  come  to  our 
side,  and  place  their  flags  by  ours.     They  are  all 
assembled  now,  the  soldiers  of  liberty,  freemen  from 
free  peoples:  all  free  men  are  now  united  in  the 
fight   for  liberty   and   democracy.     And  we  will 
never  falter  in  that  fight :  we  will  fight  on  so  long  as 
the  fight  lasts,  till  the  end.     We  will  prevent  Prus- 
sian militarism  from  reigning  over  the  world.    We 
will  save  the  future  generations,  to  whom  at  the 
cost  of  our  blood  and  sorrows  we  transmit  a  sacred 

105 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

heritage,  which  they  will  surely  hold.  We  will 
preserve  all  future  generations  against  a  tragedy 
as  terrible  as  the  one  we  are  undergoing,  in  these 
moments  of  struggle  and  sacrifice,  may  infinite 
hope  send  its  thrill  through  our  hearts.  To- 
morrow we  shall  see  not  only  material,  but  moral 
victory  shine  before  our  eyes.  And  then  final 
peace,  if  you  will  it  as  we  will  it,  shall  rise  over  all 
the  earth,  since  no  power  of  prey  will  any  longer 
exist.  All  the  sons  of  men,  all  the  children  of 
our  children  will  at  last  live  free  lives,  and  die, 
satisfied,  after  giving  humanity  all  that  is  best  in 
their  souls  and  hearts. 


1 06 


XX 

AT  LAWYERS'  LUNCHEON  AT  THE 
BILTMORE  HOTEL 
«  friday,  may  1  ith 

My  Dear  Brethren: 

AS  your  president,  Mr.  Wickersham,  has  just 

/\  said,  we  have  been  received  since  land- 
-t  jL  ing  on  American  soil  by  governors  of 
states,  mayors  of  your  largest  cities;  we  have  re- 
ceived from  them  the  most  cordial  welcome,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  welcome  which  we  met 
in  the  streets  of  the  cities  from  the  entire  popu- 
lation. And  yet  1  must  say  that,  however  great 
the  swelling  pride  which  overflows  my  heart 
may  be,  it  would  not  be  complete  had  I  been  un- 
able to  receive,  through  stress  of  other  engage- 
ments, the  amiable  and  gracious  invitation  which 
you  addressed  to  me  while  I  was  still  in  Washing- 
ton. 

It  seems  to  me  that  something  would  have  been 
lacking  in  my  life,  in  my  career,  if  in  passing 
through  this  great  city  of  New  York,  where  nearly 
six  thousand  of  my  brethren  work  and  are  the 

107 


ADDRESS  BY  M.   VIVIANI 

honour  of  the  bar  of  the  United  States,  I  had  not 
been  accorded  the  honour  of  meeting  them,  of 
hearing  their  authorized  representatives,  and  of 
shaking  their  loyal  hands.  And  just  now  your 
president,  in  enumerating  the  titles,  to  which  I 
owe  the  inestimable  honour  of  being  received  to- 
day as  your  guest,  was  careful  to  recall,  and  in  this 
1  agree  with  him,  the  title  which  is  the  highest. 
Yes,  indeed,  for  twenty-five  years  I  have  been 
engaged  in  politics;  and  far  be  it  from  me  to  pass  a 
disdainful  judgment  on  political  activities,  for  I 
received,  while  still  young,  from  French  Democ- 
racy, without  meriting  it,  every  favour  and  every 
smile  of  fortune.  Yes,  indeed,  it  is  not  I  who  can 
forget  that  for  nearly  twenty-five  years  1  have  had 
the  honour  to  be  one  of  its  elect,  and  that  for 
more  than  ten  years  I  have  had  the  honour  of 
being  admitted  to  the  Councils  of  our  Government. 
1  cannot  forget  any  of  the  stages  which  I  have 
passed  through,  either  as  Minister  of  Works,  as 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  as  President  of  the 
Council,  or  as  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  or  as 
Minister  of  Justice.  Allow  me  to  tell  you  what 
1  have  so  often  repeated  to  my  French  compatriots; 
the  title  which  I  hold  in  the  highest  esteem, 
which  stirs  my  heart  most,  which  more  than  all 
appeals  to  my  soul,  is  your  title,  is  mine,  is  the 
one  which  we  have  conquered  by  the  joy  of 
work ;  it  is  the  title  of  Advocate  at  the  Parisian  Bar. 
It  is  to  it  that  I  owe  what  you  owe  to  yours,  advo- 

io8 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

cates  of  the  Bar  of  New  York,  the  proud  and  sub- 
stantial independence  which  assures  a  tranquil  life 
in  the  midst  of  storms.  It  is  to  it  that  1  owe  what 
you  owe  to  your  profession :  the  honour  of  bringing 
before  the  courts  and  before  justice  the  grievances 
and  claims  of  litigants.  Oh,  I  know  very  well  by 
how  many  detractors,  perhaps  in  America,  at  any 
rate  in  France,  our  profession  is  surrounded.  And 
yet  I  maintain  that  there  is  no  prouder  or  more 
noble  profession.  We  are  not  only  lawyers,  who 
have  studied  the  law  in  its  text  and  given  ourselves 
up  to  the  abstract  play  of  logic  on  the  day  when  we 
were  admitted  to  plead  before  the  courts.  No: 
there  is  no  greater  or  more  noble  mission  than  ours. 
We  receive  in  our  offices  suffering  fellow-beings, 
who  bring  to  us,  their  lawyers,  transformed  into 
confidants  and  confessors,  their  sentiments  and 
their  interests.  During  nights  and  days  of  work 
we  endeavour  to  rise  to  the  height  of  our  mission 
by  preparing  for  the  court  and  presenting  to  it  the 
supreme  arguments  of  the  cause  we  believe  just. 
And  while  the  magistrates  deliberate,  anxiety 
fills  our  brain;  anguish  our  hearts.  We  constantly 
ask  ourselves  if  we  have  really  fulfilled  our  high 
mission;  for  that  mission  is  not  merely  to  defend 
the  individual.  How  many  times  in  our  career 
have  Ave  not  been  confronted  with  greater  perils? 
That  which  constitutes  the  nobility  of  our  task  is 
that,  when  we  have  taken  up  a  cause  which  we 
have  found  just,  we  defend  it  against  the  ignor- 

109 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

ance  of  the  masses,  against  popular  passion,  and 
against  the  tyranny  of  the  mighty.  Above  all 
men,  the  la\tyer  is  he  who  can  maintain  in  the  face 
of  popular  clamour  the  spirit  of  justice  and  truth. 
His  is  not  only  a  private  mission.  We  are  not 
merely  professional  men  attached  to  our  offices, 
in  our  place  of  residence.  I  dare  to  say,  without 
lack  of  respect  for  the  illustrious  magistrates  who 
are  gathered  here,  and  whom  I  thank  for  their 
presence,  which  is  an  honour  to  the  bar  of  New 
York  and  the  Parisian  bar — I  dare  say  that  the 
magistracy  itself,  whatever  may  be  its  knowledge, 
whatever  its  ability,  whatever  may  be  the  con- 
scientiousness with  which  it  studies  matters,  the 
skill  which  it  has  attained  by  virtue  of  its  long- 
pursued  studies,  the  magistracy  itself,  in  truth, 
could  not  fulfil  its  high  mission  if,  beside  it,  we 
did  not  fulfil  another. 

What  is  it  that  constitutes  the  courage  of  the 
magistrate,  his  independence;  what  is  it,  after 
deliberation,  which  causes  him  to  feel  the  serenity 
of  the  judge  when  he  has  pronounced  sentence? 
It  is  because  he  has  heard  the  lawyers;  it  is  because 
such  and  such  a  lawyer  has  laid  the  truth  at  the 
feet  of  justice;  it  is  because  he  has  not  the  right 
to  consider  more  than  the  lawyers  have  told  him, 
and  that,  after  all,  if  the  lawyer  has  not  risen  to 
the  height  of  his  mission,  the  responsibility  is  not 
the  judge's.  So  that  to  the  social  mission  of  the 
judge,  who  expounds  the  law,  is  added  the  social 

I  10 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

mission  of  the  lawyer,  who  enables  the  judge  to 
perceive  the  truth  amid  the  complexities  of  a 
conflict,  amid  all  the  difficulties  of  a  suit,  in  the 
minute  analysis  of  all  the  causes  raised  by  a  pro- 
ceeding. 

Herein  lies  the  grandeur  of  our  role,  and  that 
explains  to  you,  brethren  of  New  York,  why  the 
j-rench  democracy  has  so  often  called  upon  the 
bar  of  France,  asking  its  aid  in  the  demo- 
cratic councils  of  the  Chamber,  of  the  Senate,  or 
in  the  Councils  of  the  Government.  The  docu- 
mentary evidence  we  bring,  as  we  have  just  said, 
is  no  longer  that  of  private  citizens,  but  that 
of  all  France;  and  with  it  we  bring  our  professional 
virtues,  our  love  of  truth,  our  love  of  justice,  the 
patient  interpretation  of  texts,  our  earnest  desire 
to  transmit  to  the  minds  of  those  who  surround  us 
the  knowledge  which  we  ourselves  have  been  able 
to  acquire. 

Permit  me,  then,  to  thank  you  for  your  presence 
in  this  hall,  for  this  immense  audience  which  hears 
me,  to  whom  I  can  say  that  never  more  than 
to-day  have  I  so  much  regretted  my  inability  to 
speak  your  beautiful  language,  in  order  that  I 
might  express  to  you  with  the  clearness  and  pre- 
cision which  your  language  affords,  the  sentiments 
which  fill  my  heart. 

Let  me  say,  however,  that  to  have  been  received 
by  you  will  be  one  of  the  most  cherished  memories 
of  my  life.     And  let  me  add  that  1  shall  not  leave 

1 1 1 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

this  hall  filled  with  exaggerated  pride  or  with  ex- 
cessive vanity.  Indeed,  although  this  opportu- 
nity enables  you  to  address  your  eulogies  to  me, 
I  do  not  apply  them  to  myself;  but  to  the  great 
judicial  family  to  which,  for  thirty  years,  I  have 
belonged,  to  the  Parisian  bar.  And  from  this 
platform  I  may  be  allowed  to  review  my  past, 
to  recall  from  the  distant  past,  when  I  was  still 
young,  those  difficult  stages  of  my  hard  career, 
that  bitterness  which  young  lawyers  in  hours  of  dis- 
couragement, which  you,  also,  have  known,  when, 
in  spite  of  talent,  in  spite  of  hard  work,  in  spite  of 
daily  effort,  it  seems  that  a  reputation  is  unattain- 
able, and  that  one  is  doomed  to  failure. 

Allow  me  to  look  back  into  this  struggling  career 
in  which  1  was  accompanied  and  encouraged  by 
all  my  masters,  some  of  whom  have  passed  away, 
and  whose  memory  I  salute.  And  permit  me  to 
turn  again  to  Mr.  Guthrie,  who  just  now  rendered, 
homage  to  the  Parisian  bar,  of  which  I  am  a  mem- 
ber. Ah,  yes,  this  Parisian  bar,  as  well  as  that 
of  all  France,  is  peopled  with  young  men  who  de- 
voted their  hearts  to  the  future.  Before  them  a 
great  career  lay  open.  They  were  satisfied  to  work 
peaceably  in  their  study  for  the  purpose  of  attain- 
ing fortune,  either  great  or  small;  in  any  case,  to 
make  their  lives  a  credit  to  them.  They  were 
quietly  working  there  in  the  month  of  July,  1914, 
and  the  summer,  with  its  bright,  clear  days,  after 
a  year  of  work,  called  them  to  their  vacations. 

1 12 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

Then  was  heard  the  call  to  arms.      The  first  cannon 
shot  resounded.     The  tragic  hour  in  our  history 
had  come.     The  horizon  became  suddenly  dark- 
ened and  was  zigzagged  by  the  flashes  of  the  tragic 
struggle,   and  all   these  young  men,   doffing   the 
lawyer's  robe,  seizing  arms,  left  to  join  the  colours, 
to  rejoin  their  regiments.     And  you  were  right 
just  now,  my  dear  comrade,  in  rendering  homage, 
not  only  to  the  lawyers,  but  to  all  those  men  of  the 
liberal  professions  who,  in  France,  joined  the  col- 
ours, in  company  with  peasants  and  working  men. 
Yes,  it  was  an  admirable  example  of  national  unity 
and  sacred  union  which  glorious  France  offered 
the  world.     Not  a  man,  whatever  his  rank,  whether 
he  wears  the  apron  of  the  working  man  or  the 
blouse   of   the    peasant,    whether   he   wears    the 
robe  of  the  magistrate  or  that  of  the  lawyer,  not  a 
man,  whether  rich  or  poor,   failed   in   his  duty. 
And  at  the  same  hour,  on  the  same  day,  all  bowing 
their  heads  to  the  level  of  the  bloody  trenches, 
all  together  forming  the  democratic  army,  the  great 
army  of  citizens  all  went  together,  to  represent 
France  before  the  enemy.     But  what  am  I  saying? 
My  words  are  untrue.     I  lessen  their  role;  I  lessen 
their   mission.     They   did   not    represent    France 
alone.     They  felt  they  were  bound  to  our  national 
history  by  more  than  one  tie.     The  soldiers  of 
1 9 14,  doubtless,  were  the  soldiers  of  19 14.     They 
defended  our  territory,  our  invaded  land.     That 
they  did;  but  can  you  believe  that  discipline,  that 

^3 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

the  apprehension  of  danger,  can  you  beHeve  that 
the  orders  given  by  our  officers  to  our  soldiers, 
sufficed  to  give  birth  to  the  heroism  they  dis- 
played? No.  What  caused  the  army  to  line  up 
was  that  it  was  an  army  of  citizens  as  well  as  of 
soldiers:  it  was  because  in  reviewing  the  past  it 
saw  a  past  filled  with  glory;  it  was  because  it  did 
not  wish  to  be  unworthy  of  its  great  ancestors  who 
suffered  and  fought  on  French  soil;  in  a  word, 
our  national  army  knew  that  it  was  defending  the 
principles  of  justice  and  humanity  to  which  you 
have  rendered  so  deserved  an  homage.  And  that 
is  what>  in  the  towns  1  have  passed  through,  how- 
ever feeble  my  voice  may  be,  in  the  midst  of  im- 
mense throngs  gathered  before  me,  that  is  what 
1  have  said.  My  words  came  from  the  depths  of 
my  heart  You  were  right,  my  dear  brother,  my 
illustrious  brother,  illustrious  judge  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  you  were  right  to  say  that  we  had 
finally  found  the  means  of  appealing  directly  to 
the  heart  of  America.  And  do  you  not  think  that 
1  was  unaware  of  that?  Do  you  imagine  that  1 
have  not  felt  that  my  words  penetrated  the  souls 
of  those  who  surrounded  me?  Do  you  imagine 
that  an  orator  of  our  profession  could  speak  effi- 
ciently through  habit  alone,  by  his  individual 
thought,  without  feeling  consciences  and  hearts 
stirred  around  him?  Yes,  it  is  because  I  felt  in 
you  a  heart  that  beat  with  mine,  because  my  feel- 
ings corresponded  with  yours,  because  my  emotion 

114 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

rose  to  the  height  of  yours,  because  yours  rose  to 
the  height  of  mine,  that  we  understood  one  another 
and  that  in  spite  of  the  difference  in  language 
which  expresses  the  soul,  we  clearly  saw  one  soul, 
the  same,  the  same  in  France  as  in  America. 

Your  attitude  to-day,  like  the  attitude  which 
1  have  already  spoken  of,  has  been  outlined  by 
Mr.  Hughes.  He  said,  and  1  repeat  it;  It  is  not 
an  abstract  greeting  which  the  French  Mission  has 
brought  to  America.  No;  we  are  not  here  merely 
to  exchange  expressions  of  international  friendship; 
we  have  not  come  merely  for  the  purpose  of  shak- 
ing hands  with  you;  we  have  not  come  here  to 
salute  you;  nor  to  become  intoxicated  by  the 
clamorous  acclamations  which  greet  us  in  your 
streets.  We  have  come  here  to  reach  your  souls, 
to  reach  your  hearts.  Yes,  this  1  say,  we  have 
come,  however  unworthy  we  may  be  of  our  mission, 
to  show  you  the  great  soul  of  wounded  France,  of 
suffering  France,  of  eternal  France.  All  the 
orators  who  have  preceded  me  upon  this  platform 
have  accorded  us  too  much  praise  to  permit  me, 
with  modesty,  to  attempt  to  surpass  your  eulogy. 
You  have  shown  the  French  isolated  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war,  sleeping  in  muddy  and  bloody 
trenches,  fighting  night  and  day,  constantly,  not 
only  for  themselves,  but  for  humanity.  You 
have  looked  upon  the  French  Army  as  the  van- 
guard of  all  the  armies  of  free  men.  Yes,  indeed, 
yours  are  true  words.     For  the  last  three  years 

"5 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

we  have  been  f.ghting  for  liberty;  we  are  upholding 
in  the  breeze  under  shot  and  shell  the  banner 
of  universal  democracy.  May  free  men  now  rise 
and  come  to  our  side !  For  the  honour  of  humanity 
let  us  not  be  alone  in  this  fight.  Come  to  us, 
American  brothers,  whose  hearts  have  been  riveted 
to  ours  ever  since  Lafayette  with  his  French  sol- 
diers landed  upon  your  soil  and  lent  the  aid  of  his 
arms  to  American  independence.  It  is  not  for 
France;  it  is  not  for  you;  it  is  not  for  England;  it 
is  not  for  Russia;  no,  it  is  not  for  the  nations;  it  is 
for  the  whole  world;  it  is  for  all  humanity. 

And  Mr.  Hughes  has  just  truly  said  that  he 
could  not  conceive  the  existence  of  a  country 
without  international  law.  In  truth,  it  would 
be  a  mere  jungle  in  which  there  would  be  neither 
laws  nor  judges,  and  where  he  who  entered  it 
might  at  each  step  risk  assassination.  And  I  say 
to  you;  what  avail  your  peaceful  studies  and  ours, 
what  avails  it  to  open  the  files  of  our  clients, 
what  avails  it  to  invent  codes  for  the  determination 
of  individual  conflicts?  What  avails  it  to  plead 
individual  causes  before  judges,  if  the  great  cause 
of  humanity  is  not  gained  by  our  arms,  by  our 
soldiers? 

Then,  let  us  close  our  brief-cases.  Let  us  turn 
from  the  study  of  the  law,  so  long  as  human  right 
has  not  obtained  the  satisfaction  to  which  it  is 
entitled.  And  since,  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
no  progress  can  be  initiated  unless  it  is  born  in 

1 16 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

pain,  since  human  and  eternal  righi  can  only 
prevail  after  immense  hecatombs  of  the  dead  have 
been  piled  up  around  it,  let  us  tender  our  pious 
homage  to  those  who  have  fallen  for  the  holy 
cause,  and  create  in  ourselves  a  heart  of  iron,  a 
heart  inaccessible  to  fear  and  sorrow;  let  us  con- 
tinue our  road  to  the  end,  to  the  end  of  the  war, 
to  the  victory  of  justice  and  democracy. 


IV 


XXI 

AT  THE  WALDORF  ASTORIA 
friday,  may  1  ith 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

BEFORE  leaving  New  York  officially  with 
my  companions,  I  wish  it  were  in  my 
power  to  express  worthily  and  in  a  voice 
that  could  rise  above  your  cheering  and  your 
ovations,  our  thanks  to  your  vast  population, 
which  even  this  immense  city  can  hardly  contain. 
And  as  if  the  enthusiastic  acclamations  of  these 
throngs,  which,  through  our  passing  presence, 
reach  far  above  and  beyond  us  to  the  France  we 
represent,  were  not  enough  to  express  your  feel- 
ings, you  have  here,  Mr.  Mayor,  gathered  together 
in  this  enormous  hall  for  a  last  farewell  the  very 
flower  of  your  city.  When  1  lift  my  dazzled  eyes, 
I  see  beneath  a  flood  of  light  all  the  radiance  of 
youth  and  beauty  assembled. 

But  since  I  can  fmd  no  adequate  words  to 
acknowledge  our  appreciation  of  your  exquisite 
courtesy,  allow  me,  Mr.  Mayor,  to  turn  in  simple 
thanks  to  you,  and  through  you  to  the  population 

ii8 


ADDRESS    BY    M.    VIVIANI 

of  New  York.  May  I  congratulate  the  City  upon 
being  represented  by  such  a  man  as  yourself,  on 
whose  youthful  brow  1  see  all  the  maturity  of  deep 
thought,  and  who  in  order  to  administer  such  a 
gigantic  city  and  to  meet  such  complex  duties 
must  indeed  be  gifted  with  an  exceptional  com- 
bination of  power  and  gentleness. 

And  if  1  could,  were  1  not  so  pressed  for  time — 
for  indeed  at  this  very  moment  the  whistle  of  the 
train  is  calling  us — I  would  attempt  as  one  gathers 
flowers  into  a  nosegay,  to  recall  and  bind  together 
the  various  impressions  which  my  companions 
and  myself  have  gathered  in  the  course  of  our 
triumphal  journey.  I  used  to  consider  America, 
in  deeds  at  least  if  not  in  thought,  as  above 
all  a  commercial  country.  But  soon  after  we 
left  Washington,  the  great  political  capital  and 
seat  of  government,  where  we  had  the  honour 
of  being  received  by  your  illustrious  President, 
Mr.  Wilson,  whose  invisible  and  powerful  pres- 
ence we  seemed  to  feel  everywhere  throughout 
the  country,  soon  after  we  left  Washington  ac- 
companied by  Mr.  Lansing's  assistants,  Mr.  Long, 
Mr.  Polk,  Mr.  Phillips,  who  were  kind  enough  to 
share  with  us  the  hardships  of  the  road,  but  also 
shared,  I  may  say,  the  intoxication  of  our  triumph, 
we  had  a  full  opportunity  of  seeing  a  part,  though 
but  a  small  one,  of  this  vast  America  which  before 
was  unknown  to  some  of  us.  And  what  did  we 
behold?     Undoubtedly   many   Americans   of   an- 

119 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

cient  origin,  but  also  (and  they  above  all  attracted 
our  attention,  all  the  more  because  we  had  heard 
so  much  of  them)  people  of  all  races  fused  in  your 
gigantic  melting-pot.  Many  of  these  races  have 
doubtless  remained  faithful  to  their  old  traditions, 
but  the  American  soul  is  so  all-embracing,  so 
powerful,  that  it  has  absorbed  them  all,  and 
they  are  now  all  American.  We  saw  with  our  own 
eyes  proofs  of  their  loyalty  to  their  new  fatherland 
and  of  a  national  unity  we  were  hardly  prepared  to 
find. 

And  it  is  before  this  people  we  appear  to-day  in 
this  tragical  hour,  before  this  people  which  has,  so 
to  say,  absorbed  into  its  frame  the  races  and 
traditions  of  other  lands  and  in  whose  midst  the 
old  European  races  have  come  to  renew  their 
blood  and  seek  fresh  fountains  of  strength.  It  is 
before  this  people  we  come  to  solve  grave  problems. 
And  in  spite  of  the  distance,  even  here  our  minds 
go  back  to  the  battlefields,  to  the  struggles,  the 
sorrows  and  the  sufferings  of  the  old  world.  Such 
a  meeting  at  such  a  time  is  the  greatest  honour  of 
my  life;  and  I  count  it  also  a  supreme  satisfaction 
to  meet  here  amidst  such  a  gathering  my  distin- 
guished colleague,  the  representative  of  noble 
Great  Britain,  Mr.  Balfour,  who  in  a  simple  and 
manly  speech  has  just  expressed  truths  similar  to 
those  which  1,  in  my  turn,  will  seek  to  express. 

May  I  be  permitted,  Mr.  Mayor,  to  recall 
those  dark  hours  you  alluded  to  just  now,  those 

1 20 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

fateful  hours,  when  I  was  Prime  Minister  of  France, 
and  Marshal  JofTre  was  in  supreme  command  of 
the  French  forces?  As  you  very  truly  said,  each 
knew  he  could  rely  upon  the  other.  At  that  hour, 
on  the  3d  of  August,  1914,  we  were  face  to  face 
with  Imperial  Germany.  Alone  with  Russia, 
which  has  now  sprung  to  new  national  life,  and 
which,  1  trust,  after  the  tempest  of  its  revolution 
is  over  and  its  eddies  have  subsided,  will  realize 
that  national  emancipation  and  world-wide 
liberty  must  be  fought  for  at  one  and  the  same 
time;  alone  with  Russia,  France  faced  her  destmy. 
England  had  not  yet  joined  us,  but  of  her  1  never 
doubted.  If  at  that  date  an  Englishman  had  told 
me  he  would  refuse  to  fight,  1  should  have  an- 
swered he  knew  not  what  he  said,  that  such  a 
thought  was  unthinkable.  And  indeed  those 
anxious  hours  passed  swiftly  away :  Germany  tore 
international  treaties  to  pieces,  in  order  to  strike  a 
quicker  blow  at  France:  she  invaded  heroic  Bel- 
gium, who,  with  her  chivalrous  King  rushed  to 
meet  her,  and  England,  our  indomitable  ally,  rose 
to  a  man  when  the  fateful  hour  had  struck.  With 
us  she  had  signed  that  broken  treaty:  she  declared 
that  her  national  honour  would  be  stained  if  the 
blood  of  her  children  were  not  shed  to  defend  her 
signature.  She  declared  there  were  not  two  stand- 
ards of  morality,  one  for  nations,  one  for  indiv- 
uals,  that  honesty  was  the  common  basis  for  all 
human  relations,  and  that  she  would  perish  rather 

121 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

than  he  dishonoured.  And  she  sprang  to  her  feet, 
ralhed  to  our  side,  mobiHzed  her  powerful  fleet ; 
and  next,  as  Mr.  Balfour  said,  sent  us  such  army 
as  she  could,  for  she  was  unprepared,  as  democ- 
racies too  often  are,  through  the  failure  of  a  general 
conscription  law,  to  gather  more  than  eighty  thou- 
sand men.  But  those  she  sent  under  Marshal 
French  to  cooperate  with  General  JoflFre  and  re- 
ceive his  instructions.  She  could  do  no  more. 
"French's  contemptible  little  army"  the  Kaiser 
sneered;  but  it  fought  with  us  on  the  Marne  and 
swelled  rapidly  to  two  hundred  thousand;  then 
five  hundred  thousand;  then  a  million;  then  one 
million  five  hundred  thousand.  Thus  did  England 
call  from  her  soil  her  legions  to  join  ours,  and  hold 
ever  wider  portions  of  our  front.  And  General 
Joffre  who,  if  he  was  not  in  direct  command  of  the 
English  forces,  yet  gave  his  instructions,  first  to 
Marshal  French,  then  to  General  Sir  Douglas 
Haig,  now  in  supreme  command.  General  Joft're 
would  tell  you  what  valiant  soldiers,  what  heroes 
have  rallied  to  our  side,  full  of  that  quiet  energy, 
dogged  courage,  humorous  cheerfulness,  charac- 
teristic of  a  race  that  smiles  in  the  very  jaws  of 
death. 

Now  German  organization,  German  Kultur,  are 
fine  things,  no  doubt,  gentlemen,  when  seen  from 
a  distance.  But  mark  me  well;  their  vices  are 
apparent  when  one  draws  near  to  them.  Do  you 
know  what   has  brought  disaster  on   Germany? 

122 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

What  hurls  her  to  ruin?  Let  me  tell  you:  it  is  her 
lack  of  psychological  insight.  She  sent  to  Eng- 
land, to  Russia,  to  France,  second-rate  diplomats 
whose  only  care  was  to  gossip  in  drawing-rooms 
and  knew  not  the  people.  Of  English  history,  of 
French  history,  they  knew  nothing.  Germany 
imagined  these  two  great  peoples  were  helpless  to 
defend  themselves.  What  did  she  think  of  Eng- 
land? That  it  was  a  people  enamoured  of  peace 
and  that  no  power  could  bring  it  out  of  its  island; 
that  the  government  in  1914  was  pacifist,  and 
afraid  to  fight.  And  again  that  imperialistic 
England  in  her  desire  to  dominate  the  world  would 
rouse  her  very  colonies  to  revolt:  and  Ireland's 
rebellion  was  a  sure  thing,  fomented  as  it  was, 
doubtless,  by  German  gold.  Well,  what  did  hap- 
pen? Ireland  remained  loyal  to  England;  and  the 
English  colonies,  seething  with  revolt  they  said, 
rose,  not  in  revolt,  but  to  send  their  sons,  their 
munitions,  their  money,  their  very  life-blood  to 
Great  Britain.  And  what  does  that  teach  us? 
It  teaches  us  that  when  a  country  has  an  ideal, 
when  it  loves  liberty,  not  only  for  itself  but  for  all 
men,  when  it  carries  free  principles  everywhere 
with  it,  it  brings  forth,  not  slaves,  but  free  men, 
men  who  in  the  hour  of  peril  heroically  rush,  as  the 
English  colonies  did,  to  the  help  of  their  menaced 
motherland. 

And  so  with  us:  Germany's  mistake  was  no  less 
ruinously  foolish.     She  had  sent  us  a  diplomat, 

123 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

Mr.  de  Schoen,  who  knew  nothing  of  France,  and 
who  dreamed  her  powerless,  because  he  had  wit- 
nessed our  interior  dissensions,  party  quarrels, 
divisions  of  opinion,  which  are  the  honour  of  our 
country,  because  a  free  nation  needs  must  seek 
truth  and  its  ideal  in  every  way.  So  Germany 
imagined  the  hour  of  battle  would  fmd  us  unpre- 
pared, incapable  of  defence;  she  saw  France, 
corrupt  and  dissolute  France,  beaten  to  her  feet 
at  the  first  shock,  and  demanding  peace  at  any 
cost  of  Imperial  Germany  after  the  first  brief 
battles.  Doubtless  our  past  history  made  her 
give  us  credit  for  being  brave,  intrepid,  capable  of 
dash  on  the  battlefield.  But  what  could  courage, 
intrepidity,  dash  avail;  what  all  the  virtues  of 
individual  men  which  are  the  glory  of  every  man? 
Germany  was  scientifically  organized:  her  indus- 
trial and  scientific  organization  needs  must  prevail 
over  French  valour.  Well,  what  did  we  make 
manifest  to  the  whole  world?  Two  qualities:  one 
which  all  men  knew  who  knew  the  glorious  tradi- 
tions of  France  throughout  the  ages:  dash,  in- 
trepidity, valour,  contempt  of  death;  but  another 
quality  was  denied  us,  that  of  endurance,  that  of 
patience,  that  of  quiet  courage:  the  steady  heart 
and  unshaken  nerves  under  the  storm  of  shot  and 
shell.  Now  in  two  battles  we  combined  both 
qualities,  as  if  we  would  offer  them  up  to  the  whole 
world  as  a  homage  and  a  lesson.  In  August, 
191 4,  we  showed  what  dash   French  troops  pos- 

124 


ADDRESS  BY  ^\.  VIVIANI 

sessed  in  spite  of  weariness,  in  spite  of  the  heat 
of  an  endless  summer,  the  exhaustion  of  three 
weeks'  incessant  fighting.  Suddenly,  miracu- 
lously, the  whole  French  Army  stood  at  bay,  and 
turned  upon  its  enemy.  And  the  man  who  com- 
manded that  army  had  remained  calm  and  impas- 
sive: every  evening  he  telephoned  to  me,  who  was 
then  Premier  of  France,  the  result  of  the  military 
operations:  at  this  very  moment  I  can  hear  his 
voice  come  to  me  over  the  wires,  quiet,  grave,  un- 
broken by  the  slightest  emotion.  And  that  voice 
spoke  its  unflinching  confidence  in  final  victory,  in 
spite  of  all.  And  when  the  hour  had  struck,  the 
moment  come,  the  order  was  issued,  was  forwarded 
to  the  armies,  the  Generals:  every  officer  read  it 
to  his  men:  "My  children,  here  we  stand.  Halt 
and  face  the  barbarians.  Die  to  the  last  man 
rather  than  retreat  another  step." 

Such  was  French  dash,  French  valour.  It 
counted  for  nothing  in  German  eyes.  But  the 
day  came  when  the  other  virtue  was  shown;  that 
on  which  they  relied  yet  less.  One  day  they 
dreamed  Verdun  could  be  taken,  not  because  it 
was  in  itself  the  greatest  prize;  it  would  have  been 
no  victory — but  to  drive  into  France  and  impose 
peace — for  our  enemies  think  they  can  let  peace 
loose  on  the  world,  as  they  unchain  war.  And  so 
German  armies  were  piled  up  on  the  French  front. 
It  was  impossible  for  us  to  advance  against  such 
odds.     Our  Generals   spoke:     Children,   not  one 

125 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VlVIANl 

Step  back:  if  you  yield  a  yard,  let  every  yard  have 
its  bloody  cost  for  your  enemy.  And  through 
the  endless  days  and  nights,  under  shot  and  shell, 
under  the  avalanche  of  shells  that  tore  up  the 
very  earth,  among  their  falling  comrades,  led  by 
their  officers,  our  men  held  fast,  contesting  every 
inch  of  ground,  fighting  for  months  and  months 
without  an  instant's  respite,  holding  back  the 
whole  weight  of  the  German  army.  And  now,  when 
we  leave  our  land,  when  we  say  those  two  names, 
the  Marne  and  Verdun,  we  mingle  in  one  the  two 
master  virtues  of  our  race:  valour  and  patience, 
courage  and  endurance,  the  Marne  and  Verdun, 
names  which  accompany  us  wherever  we  go,  in 
neutral,  in  friendly,  in  allied  countries,  the  Marne, 
Verdun,  the  glory  of  which  follows  us  step  by  step 
as  we  go,  and  sheds  its  radiance  over  the  heavens 
above  us. 

What  yet  remains  to  be  done?  For  three  long 
years  the  English  and  the  French,  sword  in  hand, 
have  fought,  not  for  England  alone,  not  for  France 
alone,  but  for  humanity,  for  right,  for  democracy. 
For  three  long  years  the  Russian  soldiers  in  the 
northern  snows,  victorious  in  Southern  Europe, 
have  fought  for  the  same  ideal;  for  two  years 
seductive,  virile  Italy  has  scaled  the  Alps  and 
shattered  with  its  hands  the  stony  barrier  that 
stifled  its  liberty:  for  three  years  Serbia,  murdered, 
trampled  under  foot  ruthlessly,  has  fought:  for 
three  years   heroic    Belgium  has  maintained  her 

126 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

honour  against  a  perjured  foe.  For  three  long 
years  we  have  striven,  face  to  face  with  our  enemy, 
lightened  our  grasp  upon  his  throat,  held  our  own. 
And  now,  when  we  are  still  strong  and  undismayed, 
neither  worn  out  nor  doubting,  still  full  of  force 
and  resource,  comes  free  America  to  our  side, 
radiant  with  its  democratic  ideals  and  ancient 
traditions,  to  fight  with  us.  She  read  in  President 
Wilson's  incomparable  message,  which  has  gone  to 
the  heart  of  every  Frenchman,  the  deep  reasons 
why  she  could  not  but  enter  into  this  war.  Yes, 
doubtless  you  had  your  slaughtered  dead  to  avenge; 
to  avenge  the  insults  heaped  on  your  honour. 
You  could  not  for  one  moment  conceive  that  the 
land  of  Lincoln,  the  land  of  Washington  could  bow 
humbly  before  the  imperial  eagle.  But  not  for 
that  did  you  rise,  not  for  your  national  honour 
alone:  do  not  say  it  was  for  that.  You  are  fighting 
for  the  whole  world :  you  are  fighting  for  all  liberty: 
you  are  fighting  for  civilization:  that  is  why  you 
have  risen  in  battle.  And  just  now  Mr.  Choate 
said:  "The  English  and  French  Mission  are  here 
to  tell  us  what  to  avoid  and  what  to  do." 

And  your  Mayor  expressed  in  an  accurate  for- 
mula his  generous  conception  of  our  relations  when 
he  said:  "America  is  founded  on  French  idealism 
and  English  common  law."  Nothing  could  be 
truer:  it  is  all  the  truth:  I  can  add  nothing  to  his 
words.  But  I  will  tell  you  what  you  can  do.  You 
are  remote  from  our  battlefields:  no  Zeppelins  can 

127 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

fly  above  your  towns  and  scatter  their  bombs  over 
the  cradles  of  your  innocent  children :  German  ships 
are  blocked  in  the  Kiel  Canal:  they  cannot  defile 
your  waters:  at  this  distance  you  cannot  hear  the 
roar  of  the  cannon.  But  can  you  imagine  that 
you  are  not  in  sooth  as  close  to  us,  in  spite  of  dis- 
tance, as  we  are  to  you:  that  Germany  is  not  as 
near  you  as  she  is  to  us:  that  the  peril  is  remote? 
No.  The  menace  of  Germany  lies  where  Mr. 
Balfour  so  philosophically  defined  it.  He  told 
you  that  the  menace  of  Germany  lies  in  her  scien- 
tific organization;  and  I  will  attempt  to  interpret 
his  words  in  the  spirit  that  prompted  them.  We 
are  all  agreed  Prussian  militarism  must  be  crushed: 
so  long  as  the  world  contains  it,  there  is  no  safety 
in  it  for  democracy.  But  what  is  Prussian  mili- 
tarism? It  was  not  born  yesterday:  it  was  not 
born  in  1914.  It  is  an  ancient  sore.  It  is  the 
bestial  and  inhuman  expression  of  a  philosophy, 
the  outcome  of  a  whole  race  so  madly  intoxicated 
with  conceit  that  it  imagines  it  is  predestined  to 
dominate  the  world,  and  is  amazed  to  see  free  men 
dare  to  rise  and  contest  its  rights.  And  if  you 
had  not  risen  against  it,  it  is  not  with  artillery, 
not  with  shells,  not  with  submarines,  not  with 
Zeppelins  you  would  have  been  attacked.  It  is 
by  the  methods  and  spirit  of  Germany  gradually 
filtering  into  your  brains,  impregnating  invisibly 
your  hearts,  and  little  by  little  violating  your  souls 
and  consciences.     That  was  the  hidden  danger,  the 

128 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

menace  of  Germany.  You  realized  the  peril,  and 
you  have  risen  to  face  it,  to  fight  a  menace  not  to 
you  alone,  but  to  all  civilization.  Now  all  we 
free  men  are  one  in  will.  The  hour  for  the  libera- 
tion of  all  men  has  struck  at  last.  All  have  risen 
in  arms  in  the  good  fight,  fought  by  us,  by  our 
children,  to  the  bitter  end.  And  we  will  never 
falter  till  victory  crowns  our  aims.  And  when  in 
far-off  days,  after  this  war,  history  shall  tell  why 
we  fought,  in  days  yet  ringing  with  this  strife, 
long  after  the  voice  of  the  cannon  is  silent,  then 
impartial  history  shall  speak.  It  will  say  why  all 
the  peoples  arose  in  battle,  why  the  free  allied 
peoples  fought.  Not  for  conquest.  They  were 
not  nations  of  prey.  No  morbid  ambitions  lay 
festering  in  their  hearts  and  consciences.  Why 
then  did  they  fight?  To  repel  the  most  brutal 
and  insidious  of  aggressions.  They  fought  for  the 
respect  of  international  treaties  trampled  under 
foot  by  the  brutal  soldiery  of  Germany,  they 
fought  to  raise  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth  to  free 
breath,  to  the  ideal  of  liberty  for  all,  so  that  the 
world  might  be  habitable  for  free  men — or  to 
perish.  And  history  will  add:  They  did  not 
perish.  They  vanquished.  They  shattered  the 
ponderous  sword  that  German  militarism  aimed 
against  the  conscience  and  the  heart  of  all  free  men. 
And  thus  together  we  shall  have  won  a  moral 
victory  and  a  material  one.  It  is  that  dawn  that  I 
greet,  that  hour  of  fate  I  bow  my  head  before. 

129 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VlVIANl 

May  the  soul  of  Washington  inspire  our  souls: 
may  the  great  shade  of  Lincoln  rise  from  its 
shroud.  We  are  all  resolved  to  battle  till  the  end 
for  the  deliverance  of  humanity,  the  deliverance  of 
democracy.  Rise  then,  brother  citizens,  and  lift 
your  brows  to  the  level  of  your  flag. 


130 


XXII 

Ar    \\\\i  BOSION   PUBLIC  LIBRARY 
sunday,  may   i  3th 

Ladihs  and  Gentlemen: 

I'lHANK  you,  Mr.  Governor,  and  Mr.  Mayor, 
for  introducing  me  to  this  most  distinguished 
gathering,  in  which  I  find  intellect,  grace  and 
beauty  intermingled  under  circumstances  most 
charming.  But,  perhaps,  if  1  were  to  look  care- 
fully at  myself,  I  might  find  cause  to  regret  their 
presenting  me  in  such  excessively  kind  words, 
for  if  I  had  to  resemble  the  portrait  that  has  been 
drawn  of  me,  if  1  were  expected  to  represent  the 
oratory  and  the  intellectual  traditions  of  France, 
I  am  afraid  you  might  detect  some  difi"erence  be- 
tween the  portrait  and  the  reality.  However,  I 
think  I  realize  the  deep  reasons  that  have  prompted 
the  kind  words  of  the  previous  orators.  Un- 
doubtedly they  wished  to  introduce  me  most 
favourably  to  this  gathering,  which  against  my 
own  will  I  have  disappointed  (at  least  I  have  been 
told  so)  by  this  delay  of  twenty-four  hours.  I  beg 
you  to  throw  the  blame  on  circumstances,  and  not 
attribute  it  to  any  indifference  on  my  part.     You 

131 


ADDRnsS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

will  easily  understand  that  it  was  impossible  for 
a  Frenchman  to  pass  so  near  Canada  and  not  visit 
a  country  where  the  shades  of  our  ancestors  arc 
honoured  and  where  their  descendants  have  pre- 
served the  traditions  and  all  the  purity  of  the 
language  of  France.  Also  I  knew  that  a  part  of 
our  heart  had  remained  behind  in  this  city  with 
a  part  of  the  French  Mission  while  1  was  in  Canada. 
You  have  had  the  honour  and  the  pleasure  to 
welcome  my  friend,  the  former  commander-in-chief, 
A'larshal  JofTre,  in  whose  company,  as  well  as 
in  the  company  of  other  eminent  Frenchmen, 
I  had  the  honour  of  landing  on  American  soil. 
And  as  soon  as  1  arrived  1  clearly  saw  that  you 
had  no  grudge  agamst  me,  and  that  nature  alone 
was  angry,  and  refused  to  add  to  our  joy  the 
splendour  of  sunshine.  I  knew  in  advance  the 
delicacy  of  your  feelings;  and  I  wish  1  could  find 
suitable  words  to  express  our  emotion  and  our 
common  gratitude  for  all  that  has  been  accom- 
plished in  the  city  of  Boston,  a  centre  of  intelligence 
and  beauty,  a  city  where  everything  has  a  spiritual 
foundation.  In  this  sacred  library,  as  it  was  called 
a  few  moments  ago,  we  have  the  joy  of  knowing 
that  all  that  is  best  in  modern  and  ancient  books 
is  to  be  found;  and  that  the  splendour  of  antique 
beauty  is  added  to  all  the  grace  of  modern  beauty. 
It  is  in  these  wonderful  surroundings  that  you  have 
been  kind  enough  to  receive  me; and  from  the  very 
moment  of  my  arrival,  even  before  I  passed,  full 

132 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

of  emotion  and  gratitude,  before  the  innumerable 
committees  that  have  heaped  so  many  good  deeds 
upon  our  wounded  and  upon  our  orphans,  it 
seemed  to  me  that  I  beheld  the  radiance  of  French 
genius  in  these  wonderful  frescoes  which  our  great 
painter,  Puvis  de  Chavannes,  sent  to  your  city, 
and  which  in  no  way  diminish  the  merits  of  the 
decorations  of  your  great  painter.  Sargent,  a  na- 
tive of  Boston,  who  studied  art  in  Europe. 

The  illustrious  population  in  which  1  fmd  myself 
to-day,  lives  for  thought,  and  in  thought,  and  it 
was  natural  that  it  should  be  drawn  nearer  to 
France.  And  not  alone  for  that  reason,  but  also 
because  it  has  remembered  the  lesson  of  duty  that 
was  given  to  it  by  its  Puritan  forefathers.  It  was 
not  unmindful  that  it  was  from  Boston  that  came 
the  first  wave  of  liberty  which  burst,  not  only  on 
America,  but  upon  the  whole  of  Europe,  in  1776, 
at  a  time  when  our  philosophers,  by  their  writings, 
were  merely  preparing  the  way  for  the  French 
Revolution.  It  is  in  this  city,  where  by  a  moving 
contrast,  power,  intellect  and  refinement  meet:  in 
this  city  which  thinks  it  is  not  enough  for  a  man  to 
attend  to  his  business  and  then  go  home,  but  that 
men  and  women  have  only  fulfilled  their  missions 
when  through  unremitting  study  they  have  sought 
to  raise  their  consciences  and  their  actions  to  a 
higher  level:  it  is  close  to  this  city  that  stands  the 
illustrious  Harvard  University,  which  I  am  afraid 
will  always  have  a  grudge  against  me  for  not  visit- 

133 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

ing  it  yesterday,  and  not  receiving  from  the  hands 
of  its  teachers  and  thinkers,  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Laws,  which  would,  indeed,  have  been  a  great 
honour.  But  it  was  unnecessary  for  me  to  come 
to  this  city  to  learn  what  the  University  had  accom- 
plished. I  knew  it  was  the  brains  of  the  country; 
and  at  the  same  time  a  centre  for  disseminating 
education  and  patriotism  at  once.  And  1  knew 
too  it  had  sent  its  valorous  students  to  the  front 
when  fate  compelled  France  to  fight.  And  from 
this  height  on  which  I  stand,  allow  me  to  thank 
the  University  for  the  ambulances  and  field  hospit- 
als which  it  has  given  us,  and  to  pay  a  pious  trib- 
ute to  the  memory  of  Norman  Prince  and  Chap- 
man, the  aviators,  who  have  risen  to  the  same 
height  as  the  French  and  English  aviators,  but 
who,  alas,  have  been  hurled  back  bleeding  to  the 
ground  after  fighting,  not  only  for  France,  but  for 
America,  since  the  two  countries  share  alike  the 
same  ideals  of  liberty  and  right.  And  I  am  not 
surprised  that  this  city  with  the  refinement  of  its 
culture,  its  quick  delicacy  of  spirit,  a  city  which 
reads,  and  understands,  and  thinks,  should  have 
been  a  centre  of  burning  patriotism.  I  do  not 
wish  to  minimize  in  my  fatherland,  be  it  the 
American,  the  French,  the  English,  the  Russian  or 
the  Italian  fatherland,  the  action  of  the  great 
forces,  of  the  thoughts  and  the  traditions  which 
enable  a  people  to  continue  its  existence  through 
successive   generations,  and   which  enable    it    to 

134 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  ViVlANI 

carry  unquenched  througli  all  storms  the  torch 
which  will  shed  its  light  upon  future  generations. 
But  1  may  say  that  in  any  civilized  country,  educa- 
tion and  therefore  universities  would  be  of  no 
purpose,  if  through  the  voice  of  thinkers,  of  journal- 
ists, of  philosophers,  even  of  those  who  belong 
to  no  profession  and  hold  no  public  office,  but  who 
simply  have  education,  intellect  and  conscience 
were  not  identified  with  the  conception  of  patriot- 
ism. The  strength  of  the  American  Universities, 
at  any  rate  of  our  great  French  educational  system, 
which  as  a  Minister  of  Public  Education  I  have 
twice  had  the  honour  to  direct,  lies  in  the  influence 
of  thinkers  and  philosophers  to,  little  by  little, 
develop  the  true  conception  of  patriotism.  Un- 
doubtedly it  is  unnecessary  to  belong  to  a  particu- 
lar country  in  order  to  realize  what  that  conception 
is  in  order  to  see  its  splendour  shine  before  our 
eyes. 

Our  motherland  is  the  soil  upon  which  our  an- 
cestors have  lived,  worked,  and  suffered.  It  is 
the  cradle  in  which  we  were  born:  it  is  the  path 
on  which  our  careless  youth  has  whiled  away  the 
hours:  it  is  the  field  of  silence  and  darkness  in 
which  our  forefathers  lie.  But  it  is  even  more; 
it  is  all  the  commercial  and  industrial  wealth 
which  has  been  accumulated  for  generations.  It 
is  even  more:  it  is  a  chain  of  successive  generations 
linked  together,  and  of  which  the  last  is  the  better 
for  the  mistakes  of  preceding  ones.     It  is  the  tears 

135 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

which  have  been  shed  by  different  eyes  at  the 
same  time*  it  is  the  same  sorrows,  deep  in  our 
consciences  and  in  our  hearts:  it  is  the  same  hopes, 
the  same  expectations,  which  dwell  in  all  souls 
alike.  All  this  is  the  motherland.  But  if  that 
motherland  arose,  it  was  because  for  centuries 
thinkers  and  philosophers  have  gathered  together 
to  give  it  a  means  of  expression.  In  our  country, 
in  France,  this  common  means  of  expression,  a 
wonderful  instrument  of  national  unity,  has  been 
our  admirable  language;  a  language  which  all  turn 
to,  since  it  is  suited  to  the  expressions  of  feelings 
and  interests,  emotions  and  realities,  the  language 
of  law  and  diplomacy,  which,  from  Descartes  and 
Voltaire  up  to  Victor  Hugo,  every  century  has 
enriched,  until  it  has  become  the  real  creator  of 
French  National  Unity.  It  is  to  it  we  owe  the 
intellectual  and  moral  France  of  to-day. 

And  it  is  to  this  France  that  Harvard  University 
justly  sent  its  American  professors  in  return  for 
our  French  professors;  and  that  an  exchange  took 
place,  which  I  hope  will  increase  after  the  war  be- 
tween French  and  American  students.  To  further 
the  relations  between  our  universities  and  yours 
is  our  warm  desire,  and  to  that  end  my  friend 
Hovelaque  here  has  been  entrusted  with  a  mission 
to  which  I  wish  all  success.  Already  many  of  our 
teachers  have  come  here  and  received  the  most 
cordial  welcome:  Brunetiere,  Gaston  Deschamps; 
our  great  poet,  Henri  de  Regnier;  our  professor  of 

I  36 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

literature,  Lanson;  others  besides  have  brought 
to  your  shores  the  different  aspects  of  French 
thought.  And  in  France,  too,  we  were  honoured 
by  the  visit  of  some  of  your  most  distinguished 
professors.  Not  to  speak  of  your  illustrious  presi- 
dent, Mr.  Lowell,  I  need  only  mention  Professor 
Wendell  who  dedicated  to  France  his  wonderful 
book,  "The  France  of  To-day,"  a  book  which  he 
had  full  authority  to  write,  for  he  had  taught  both 
literature  and  history  in  the  Sorbonne.  He  has 
thus  done  much  to  make  America  better  known  in 
France,  and  F""rance  in  America.  I  shall  never 
forget  his  lessons. 

May  1  be  allowed  here  to  relate  an  anecdote 
which  was  told  to  me  by  one  of  your  professors 
from  Harvard,  and  which  shows  how  useful 
these  exchanges  are?  He  had  spent  some  time 
in  the  Sorbonne,  and  then  taking  advantage  of  a 
few  days  of  leisure  he  went  to  Berlin  where  he  had 
seen  wonderfully  trained  troops  go  through  their 
manoeuvres.  Although  an  American,  he  was  a 
Frenchman  at  heart,  and  the  powerful  machine 
which  is  called  the  German  Army  filled  him  with 
uneasiness  for  the  future  of  France.  He  greatly 
feared  that  the  French  Army  would  never  be  able 
to  hold  its  own  against  it.  But  from  Berlin  he 
went  to  Nancy;  and  there  he  saw  our  wonderful 
Twentieth  Corps,  which  we  have  christened  the 
Iron  Division.  When  he  saw  our  valiant  soldiers 
march  erect  and  cheerful  under  our  banner,  when 

»37 


ADDRESS   BY  M.  VIVIANI 

at  the  hour  of  rest  he  saw  the  officers  drawing  near 
the  soldiers  like  old  friends,  as  should  always  be 
between  men  serving  in  the  same  democratic  army, 
his  heart  was  relieved:  he  then  realized  that  when 
the  hour  of  fate  struck  the  French  Army  would  rise 
to  the  height  of  the  occasion.  And  our  wonderful 
Twentieth  Corps  did  not  deceive  the  hopes  of  your 
Harvard  Professor.  Everywhere,  in  Lorraine,  in 
Ypres,  in  Flanders,  in  Verdun,  it  has  hurled  itself 
forward  with  the  rest  of  the  French  Army  and 
shown  what  French  valour  is,  to  wrest  from  the 
invader  even  a  few  yards  of  French  territory. 

And  now  let  me  thank  you  for  these  reassuring 
testimonies  to  our  worth,  for  the  proofs  of  friend- 
ship which  you  have  given  us  and  for  the  enthus- 
iasm which  surrounds  us.  1  ask  myself  at  times 
how,  in  the  face  of  such  generosity,  I  can  find  words 
which,  through  my  feeble  voice,  will  pay  France's 
debt  of  gratitude.  But  I  wrong  you.  You  do  not 
conceive  yourselves  to  be  creditors  exacting  their 
due  from  a  debtor.  You  fully  realize  what  you  are 
doing.  You  do  not  do  this  for  France  alone,  out  of 
love  for  her,  but,  because  in  your  minds  France 
and  civilization  are  one;  and  because  you  know 
that  our  noble  country  holds  in  its  hands  the  flag  of 
justice.  For  three  years  we  have  been  facing  the 
worst  onset  that  ever  burst  upon  men.  However 
proud  we  may  be  of  the  past  glories  of  our  annals, 
never  before  did  our  love  for  our  country  shine 
forth    more    magnificently;    never    was    courage, 

138 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

patience,  endurance  more  manifest  than  in  our 
ciiildren,  our  sons,  wlio  from  tlic  age  of  eighteen  to 
forty-five  rushed  to  the  Hag,  side  by  side,  father 
and  son,  uncle  and  nephew,  Jew  and  Gentile;  all 
creeds,  all  religions,  all  opinions,  gathered  under 
the  common  flag  of  the  motherland.  And  now  the 
French  Army  and  the  allies  are  fighting  together. 
They  fight  for  the  ideals  of  justice;  and  this 
American  Republic  which  was  founded  by  its 
own  children  but  to  whom  Lafayette,  the  grand- 
father of  my  colleague,  the  Marquis  de  Chambrun, 
brought  his  help:  this  American  Republic  which 
has  twice  fought,  once  for  independence,  and  once 
again,  at  the  peril  of  disruption,  for  the  victory  of 
the  great  principle  of  equality  for  all  human  beings : 
this  American  Republic  which  acknowledges  only 
the  principles  of  right  and  justice,  has  never  once 
given  me  any  reason  to  doubt  it  would  be  with  us. 
Even  in  that  remote  time  (how  many  centuries 
ago  I  wonder?)  of  American  neutrality,  I  knew  that 
your  souls,  your  hearts  and  your  consciences,  could 
not  without  shuddering  witness  the  German  atroc- 
ities, of  which  we,  with  the  Belgians,  were  the 
first  victims:  cathedrals  burnt  to  the  ground: 
priests  shot,  women  bestially  brutalized:  orphans 
spiked  with  bayonets  on  their  mother's  bodies: 
devastated  homes:  murder:  rape:  all  the  crimes 
known  to  the  penal  codes  of  civilized  nations. 
Was  it  possible  that  all  this  could  take  place  with- 
out sending  a  thrill  through  the  hearts  of  your 

•39 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

mothers;  of  your  men  and  women?  It  is  for  this 
reason,  whatever  is  said  to  the  contrary,  that  you 
have  risen.  You  have  risen  to  avenge  your  dead, 
because  you  could  not  allow  your  flag  to  fall  to  the 
level  of  the  German  standard.  But  mainly,  as 
your  President,  Mr.  Wilson,  put  it:  "for  humanity, 
for  right,  for  democracy,  and  for  liberty." 

And  indeed  if  it  were  possible  for  Germany  to  be 
victorious  in  this  war,  of  what  use  (I  beg  your 
pardon  for  expressing  my  thought  so  freely)  would 
be  monuments  like  this?  Of  what  use  this  marble, 
the  pictures,  the  luxury,  the  ancient  and  modern 
books  which,  in  a  few  minutes,  bring  back  to  our 
minds  all  past  centuries,  together  with  all  the  deep 
and  regenerating  elements  of  ancient  and  modern 
thought?  Of  what  use  were  all  this  if  democracy 
were  to  perish?  Of  what  use  if  we  were  forced  to 
bow  to  German  soldiery  and  Prussian  militarism? 
To  the  being  who  seems  to  have  been  created  in 
order  to  trample  brutally  under  his  heavy  foot 
human  conscience  and  thought? 

No.  The  temples  where  we  have  hitherto  gone 
to  seek  modern  science  and  beauty  will  yet  stand! 
Our  souls  will  remain  exalted,  our  conscience  clear, 
for  we  shall  be  victorious!  And  when  we  come 
back  from  the  bloody  battlefields  where,  alas, 
many  of  ours  are  lying  forever  in  silence  and  dark- 
ness, when  we  visit  our  wounded,  when  we  re- 
spectfully bow  before  the  mourning  veils  of  our 
valiant  French  womanhood,  behind  which,  through 

140 


ADDRESS  BY  M.  VIVIANI 

their  sorrow,  we  behold  the  pride  of  sacrifice,  when 
we  do  this  we  shall  feel  more  valiant  and  more  free. 
We  shall  return  to  our  studies,  after  having  saved 
the  world;  it  will  then  be  our  task  to  regenerate  it 
through  liberty  and  democracy.  Then  let  your 
hearts  and  ours  be  one.  You  are  remote  from  the 
battlefield.  You  do  not  hear  its  roar.  You  do 
not  witness  with  your  own  eyes  the  evil  that  comes 
out  of  war.  But  none  the  less  you  realize  its 
hideousness,  for  your  hearts  and  your  consciences 
would  not  be  what  they  are  if  you  did  not  realize 
it.  In  spite  of  distance  and  time,  draw  nearer  to 
us,  ever  nearer.  Suffer  with  us.  Uphold  the  truth. 
Fight  with  us.  And  together  let  us  save  civili- 
zation, democracy,  and  liberty. 


141 


ADDRESSES 

BY 

MARSHAL  JOFFRE 


MARSHAL    JOFFRE 


DEPARTMF.NT  OF  STATE 

APRII-  29,    1917 
FOR  7HF;  PRI-SS 

INFORMAL  AND  UNOFFICIAL 
STATEMENT  OF  MARSHAL  JOFFRE 

THE  very  cordial  welcome  given  me  by  the 
City  of  Washington,  and  the  expressions  of 
sympathy  which  reached  me  from  states 
and  cities  throughout  the  United  States,  have 
moved  me  deeply,  since  they  are  a  homage  paid  to 
the  whole  French  Army  which  I  represent  here. 

The  heroism  and  resolution  of  the  soldiers  of 
France  indeed  deserve  all  the  affection  the  United 
States  has  shown  them.  After  having  in  a  supreme 
effort  defeated  and  thrown  back  a  barbarous 
enemy,  the  French  Army  has  untiringly  laboured  to 
increase  and  perfect  its  efficiency.  And  now  in  the 
third  year  of  the  war  it  is  attacking  the  enemy  with 
greater  vigour  and  material  force  than  ever  before. 
Side  by  side  with  it  and  animated  by  no  less  a 
heroic  spirit  stands  the  British  Army,  whose  forma- 
tion and  development  will  ever  remain  the  admira- 
tion of  the  world.     The  Germans  have  realized  its 

145 


ADDRESS  BY  MARSHAL  JOFFRE 

wonderful  growth.  Every  encounter  has  made 
them  feel  the  increasing  menace  of  its  strength. 
The  contempt  they  pretended  to  feel  for  it  in  the 
early  days  of  the  war  has  gradually  become  a  dread 
more  openly  avowed  each  day. 

Led  by  its  illustrious  President,  the  United 
States  has  entered  into  this  war.  By  the  side  of 
France  in  the  defence  of  the  ideals  of  mankind  the 
place  of  America  is  marked. 

France,  which  has  long  recognized  the  valour 
of  the  American  soldier,  cherishes  the  confident 
hope  that  the  flag  of  the  United  States  will  soon 
be  unfurled  on  our  fighting  line.  This  is  what 
Germany  dreads. 

France  and  America  will  see  with  pride  and 
joy  the  day  when  their  sons  are  once  more  fighting 
shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  defence  of  liberty. 
The  victories  which  they  will  certainly  win  will 
hasten  the  end  of  the  war  and  will  tighten  the 
links  of  affection  and  esteem  which  have  ever 
united  France  and  the  United  States. 


I4f> 


AT  MOUNT  VERNON 

SUNDAY,  APRIL  29TH 

IN  the  French  Army  all  venerate  the  name  and 
memory  of  Washington.  I  respectfully  salute 
here  the  great  soldier  and  lay  upon  his  tomb 
the  palm  we  offer  our  soldiers  who  have  died  for 
their  country. 


147 


ADDRESS    AT    SAINT    LOUIS,    MISSOURI, 

ON  PRESENTING  AN  AMERICAN  FLAG 

TO  THE  FIFTH  U.  S.  INFANTRY 

SUNDAY,  MAY  6tH 

I  PRESENT  this  Flag  to  you.  And  when  I 
present  it  to  you,  I  need  not  say  it  is  the 
symbol  of  your  native  land.  It  will  lead 
you  into  battle.  The  further  you  carry  it,  the 
better  you  must  defend  it:  you  must  sacrifice  your 
lives,  one  and  all,  rather  than  let  it  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy. 

Perhaps  it  will  go  to  France,  there  to  wave  side 
by  side  with  the  flag  of  France,  which  for  three 
years  has  led  the  onset  against  our  foes.  And 
when  our  soldiers  see  the  Star  Spangled  Banner, 
their  souls  will  thrill.  And  I  am  assured  it  is  to 
final  victory  both  will  go. 


148 


ADDRESS  AT   BOSTON,   MASSACHUSETTS 

AFTER  RECEIVING  A  PURSE  FROM 

THE    DAUGHTER   OF    MAYOR 

CURLEY 

SATURDAY,  MAY   I2TH 

AxMONG  all  the  innumerable  expressions  of 
/  \  sympathy,  all  the  kindnesses  showered  by 
L  \,  you  on  France,  none  touches  us  so  deeply 
as  what  you  are  doing  for  the  orphans  of  our  heroic 
dead.  Our  children  are  our  most  precious  pos- 
session, our  joy  and  our  hope,  and  there  is  no  surer 
way  to  our  hearts  than  to  help  these  little  ones, 
the  most  pitiful  victims  of  this  war  for  the  liber- 
ation of  the  world.  In  their  name,  in  the  name 
of  our  soldiers  of  France,  I  thank  you,  I  thank  the 
children  of  America  whose  hearts  have  gone  out 
to  their  stricken  little  French  brothers  and  sisters. 
The  memory  of  what  you  have  done,  of  what  you 
are  doing,  will  never  fade.  You  have  sown  the 
seeds  of  love  and  friendship  between  our  two 
countries.  They  will  flower  when  they  are  men 
and  women.  Between  America  and  France  there 
is  now  a  tender  bond  of  human  kindness  and  affec- 
tion that  nothing  can  break. 

JOFFRE. 


149 


THE   COUNTRY   LIFE   PRESS 
GARDEN    CITY,    N.   Y. 


V 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


/:is 


AA    000  747  662    5 


